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.