LU FINDS SOME FRIENDS
The Three Ashes, Cyril and Lawrence's three children all stood or sat
around Lawrence's central chair as he programmed Julie's, Lu's, and
Rachel's stats into the mechanism's search function. He had kept the
search function, so he could locate and observe Pokemon, and also
still had his force-field mechanisms, though he only used these on
hurt people or Pokémon so he could transport them safely and
painlessly to the nearest hospital or Poké Centre for treatment. The
weapons mechanisms had been taken off-line, but could still fire
smoke or streamers on special occasions. Lawrence was glad that
when he'd had his machine rebuilt after the last one ended up getting
totalled on Lightning island that he'd chosen the more expensive
multiple search scanners rather than the cheaper option of one at a
time. This way, he wouldn't miss one while searching for the others.
The computer would search for anything that matched any of the
three sets of stats he had inputted.
His youngest, Lawril, had crawled onto his lap at the beginning of the
journey and was now curled up in a ball, asleep. He stretched, careful
not to disturb the slumbering six-year-old, and looked at the others.
"I'm afraid all we can do now is wait. Also, although the machine has
an infra-red searching ability, I doubt any of the three we are looking
for would travel at night as none excepting possibly Lu have any sort
of decent night-sight. I never thought to ask Lu if he had good night
vision. We will, of course, once darkness falls, switch the sensors to
night-search but we ourselves will have to hover-large obstacles such
as mountains would be detected, but the computer would not know
what to do, for example, about a large colony of Golbat flying by. If
the machine is stationary, it then gives them the chance to avoid us."
Cyril nodded, understanding but not liking it, The longer they had to
delay, the more chance that harm would come to the two women and
Lu. Just then, the computer gave a chime. Lawrence turned his
attention back to it.
"Attention, attention. Lugia detected." The computer's voice
announced, and a viewscreen stored in the upper reaches of the
control tower slid down and lit up. There on the screen, in the
distance, was a Lugia-shaped figure.
"Magnify." Lawrence ordered. The figure came into a closer view, but
was still indistinct, so Lawrence ordered another four-fold
magnification. There was no doubt about it-it was Lu, although there
seemed to be something wrong with his skin, or maybe he had
something on it or it was a weird light effect. Lawrence turned in
some lights, beaming them towards Lu and flashing them to let him
know they'd seen him. He dipped in acknowledgement, and everyone
aboard heard his mental cry of relief. This included Lawril, who was
woken by it.
Lawrence opened the bulb at the bottom of his machine, and gently
handed Lawril to Cyril. His youngest was good friends with Alex and
Tobianna, and was as often around Cyril's as he was at home, so he
didn't protest. Lawrence went down on the lift to bring Lu back up to
the control tower.
When Lawrence got down, Lu had just flown in, and he rushed at
Lawrence, who stared. There was definitely something amiss with Lu.
His main body was a light purple colour, and his eye horns and chest
markings had dulled down to a slate-grey colour. His eye horns had
changed shape too, they were more elongated and had extruded into
slim blade-like forms. His feet had also become more talon-like, and
his eyes seemed outlined with a faint redness.
LAURIE! cried Lu. Lawrence caught the little Guardian and put
his arms around him. Lu was shaking and Lawrence could sense that
Lu was very hungry, but was worried. He started trying to tell
Lawrence what had happened, something about Rachel, and Cipher,
and strange Pokémon, but Lawrence shushed him.
"Come upstairs, have something to eat and tell us all." he said. "If it
involves Rachel, Cyril will want to know." Lawrence drew back as he
felt a stab of anger from Lu's mind, but Lu immediately apologised.
They did something to me there, something that makes me feel
nasty and angry and mean. he explained. Thank you, I'd love a
meal, I'm starving, but Rachel needs our help!
"Well, she'll best get it if you're not having to ignore a growling
stomach while trying to tell us." Said Lawrence, taking the outer edge
of Lu's wing with one hand and leading him to the lift. "I'll put some
fish in the microwave on defrost, you can eat them raw, I know you
prefer them that way, and I'm sure I've got some Brock's Psychic-
type pokéchow you can snack on while it's defrosting."
Lawrence took Lu to his living quarters, and made him eat before
taking him on to the control deck. He noticed that someone-probably
Cyril-had put Lawril in his bed, where he slept, albeit a little fretfully.
Probably he missed his mum, Lawrence surmised. While Lu ate,
Lawrence leaned over and murmured reassurance to Lawril and gave
him a gentle kiss on his little blue forehead.
When Lu had eaten, Lawrence took him to the main control tower,
and when they got there, they found Cyril talking on his PDA and the
two adult Ashes playing chess using Lawrence's holographic and
touch-sensitive system, while the three children were huddled in a
corner at the far end of the room in some serious discussion.
Cyril was the first to notice them, and when he saw Lu, he swore a
lurid Shamouti-derived curse word, and as a consequence had to
hurridly explain to the person he was calling that he wasn't swearing
at or because of them. He managed to extract himself from the
conversation, and turned to Lawrence.
"Remember I told you about the Lugia that seized Lu? Well it was a
more extreme version of what Lu now looks like. Whatever they've
done to Lu's father they tried also to do to Lu."
Rachel said they were trying to close my heart and make me fight
all the time. Lu told him.
Cyril turned to Lu and said "Rachel? Trying to close your heart? Start
again, from the beginning, and explain what happened." The two
Ashes put their game of chess on hold and listened too.
Lu did so, and Cyril let forth with such a varied and inventive
catalogue of invective that he managed to go a whole two minutes
without repeating himself. When Lawrence reminded him that there
were children in the room, who had not yet overheard him but might
any minute, he stopped.
"It's Cipher again, isn't it? They have my wife, and who knows what
they're doing to her? On that subject, Laurie, there have been several
reported sightings of what I can only think must be Julie, because
every description fits except her colours."
"What do you mean, 'except her colours.' Lawrence asked, rather
sharply. "Julie is blue and white."
"Two or three friends have contacted me to tell me about a purple
and grey-lilac Articuno-like bird that has been seen flying over both
Johto and Orré." Cyril told him. He then turned to Lu. "Could you
project to Lawrence an image of what your father looked like when he
attacked you?" Lu complied, and Lawrence blinked.
"So, this process changes skin colour and appearance too? Then
whatever's happened to Lugia has happened to Julie?" Lawrence said.
"Lu mentioned that Rachel said that they were trying to close his
heart. If it's Cipher, it may be a more extreme version of the Shadow
Process they used to close Pokemon's hearts five years ago."
There's more. Said Lu in a small voice. When I left, I felt for
Rachel's mind. I found it, but there was something wrong. I think
they're trying to do the same thing to her. Cyril's heart went cold.
"Then we have to go find her. You can remember the way, can't you
Lu?"
Yes, but only in daylight. Lu said, turning to the screen.
Cyril's heart sank as he saw that it had gone dark outside. Now, all
they could do was wait till morning.
