Chapter Two.
Akbar's Folly.
AKBAR
In the meantime, a shady character was picking up the Master Ball he had stolen from an isolated lab just for this purpose. He smirked. He was going to have the most powerful and best Legendary team in the whole pokéworld to fight with! A shame he only had one Master Ball, and had used it already, but he had stolen a bunch of Ultra Balls a month back from a warehouse, and was confident that he had enough to capture the other two birds. Now where should he go, he wondered? Lightning Island and Fire Island were both close by. He looked up at the sky, which appeared to be clouding over. The weather had rapidly started becoming hot and muggy. Thunderclouds were beginning to gather. He decided that maybe he should try Fire Island next, to get there before the storm broke. Turning and ignoring the statue with its blue glass sphere, he turned to leave.
LAWRENCE
Lawrence had assistance quite quickly, for Julie's scream had roused half the village. Melody, who had been the Festival Maiden in 2000, offered to take him in her speedboat to Ice Island, to see if he could find Julie, calm her, and find out, if possible, what had roused her. She was a capable pilot, even in the suddenly choppy waves around the islands, and they got to Ice Island just after Zapdos did. They saw the other boat there, and a figure about to climb into it.
"Hey, who are you?" asked Lawrence.
"I'm Akbar, and I'll be the greatest Trainer that ever lived when I get my dream team together!" he said. "Now, let me go, I've got some Pokémon to catch." He looked up at the sky, saw Zapdos wheeling and coming in, preparing to land. "Or maybe I should just stay here? It looks like they're going to come to me."
Lawrence went pale. Hadn't this jerk heard what had happened two years previously?
"Bad idea." Melody spoke up from beside him. "The last time someone tried to do that two years ago, the world almost came to an end. The harmony of the entire world is dependent upon those three birds. You upset the balance of nature and things are going to get very bad, and this time, the True Chosen One isn't here to make things go right."
"What do you mean?" Akbar asked.
"Remember that odd weather that happened in the year 2000?" Lawrence asked. Akbar nodded.
"That happened because I tried to catch the three birds and Lugia last year." Lawrence told him. "Within a day, we had tornadoes, a vicious undersea current, and all because I tried to catch the birds. If the Chosen One hadn't been around, all intelligent life on the planet would have been wiped out a few hours later!"
"Really?" Akbar asked, going white. Lawrence nodded.
"Have you captured Articuno?" Lawrence asked, spotting the Master Ball on Akbar's belt. Akbar nodded, looking very frightened, and then looked up as a screech filled the air. "Wait a minute, isn't that Articuno up there? There's two of them?"
Lawrence looked up too, to see Julie circling and calling.
"Not quite." He said, not taking his eyes off Julie. "If you've caught Articuno, then we are in deep trouble. Those birds are meant to be free and in harmony. By catching one, you've upset the world's balance dramatically. We have twenty-four hours to find the Chosen One and get him to get the three Treasures to the Slowking's shrine. Rather a tall order as I currently do not know where the Chosen One is." He caught his breath as he saw Julie suddenly veer towards Zapdos, her call taking on a challenging note. Zapdos aborted it's landing, rising into the air again and answering Julie with a deafening, defiant call.
"But….if having caught Articuno is the problem, I can solve it!" said Akbar. Before anyone could react, he had pulled the Master Ball off his belt and released the occupant-an incredibly annoyed-looking Articuno. He dropped the Master Ball to the floor just as Lawrence had registered what he'd said and turned. He saw Akbar raise his foot over the open Master Ball, and as he and Melody both cried "No!" Akbar brought his foot down upon the Master Ball, breaking it into five pieces.
"You fool!" raged Lawrence. "Now they'll all be fighting!" He raised his eyes to the sky as he heard yet another cry, and saw Moltres join Julie, Articuno, and Zapdos in the space over Ice Island. The tension in the air rose palpably, and it was Zapdos that made the first move, directing a bolt of electricity at Articuno. Articiuno responded with a bolt of ice, which was followed by another. Horrified, Lawrence realised that there was a factor not foreseen in 2000 here. The three opponents of 2000 had been joined by a fourth combatant.
Julie had joined in the fight.