Putting Him In His Place

Chapter Two

He woke.

Lifting his head, Lawrence looked around at the cave he'd found a day and a half ago. He struggled to his feet, rather clumsily, as he was still not used to the Lugia body he had acquired, and moved to the exit. He had thankfully been able to fly, and had thrilled the inhabitants of Shamouti by flying low over their village three times…the first time almost too low. He was convinced his tail had banged against the top of a roof. Once he had realised the degree of distraction he was causing the Shamouti Islanders, he had veered off to practice flying above the open sea

Lowering his head, he now crouched, and pushed his way out into the sea.

His instincts took over then, his tail moving and his wings now acting as flippers, and he felt a strange sense of exhilaration as he slid through the water.

He had thought through what to do about Cyril, and had thought of something he could do. He could lie low and hope Cyril didn't go after the birds-which was a pretty vain hope-or he could try and exploit the weakness of the machines.

Inertia, he'd realised, was one, but although he could easily out-fly and out-manoeuvre the machine, the force-field frames didn't have that weakness, so size was his only weapon. If he could find narrow crevasses and tight spaces to squeeze into, he might be able to hide there to avoid them.

Through his new awareness of the harmony of the elements, he now realised, more than he ever could have as a human, how fragile the balance was, how little could tip it back into disharmony. He didn't know how to stop Cyril going after the birds, and just hoped that the boy-the True Chosen One-was still around and willing to repeat the retrieval and placement of the three Treasures. Cyril would get airsick with the turbulence he knew, which would probably put him off trying once he'd tried the once. Lawrence had hoped to avoid this eventuality, but couldn't think of any way of stopping Cyril from making the attempt. Telepathic communication to warn Cyril off would mean getting within range of the firing mechanisms, and he'd be lucky if he got five words out before Cyril's force-field frames were upon him.

Of course, the other option was to use the Lugia attacks to disable and damage Cyril's ship. Lugia's Aeroblast had certainly made a mess of Lawrence's own machine. However, Lawrence considered himself extremely fortunate not to have been harmed, and he would fear harming Cyril if he did that, so attacking was one option he quickly ruled out.

His head broke the water's surface and he stretched at the feel of the sun on his head. Sweeping the sky with his eyes, he watched for the arrival of Cyril's machine in the sky. Cyril was due to arrive that day, so he needed to watch for him.

Cyril sat in his control chair-a smaller version of Lawrence's. Cyril wasn't quite as wealthy as Lawrence (or as large-framed) so everything was scaled down. Cyril looked at the schematic of the islands.

"It looks like Lawrence's ploy to flush out Lugia worked, seeing as he tried to capture him, but he ran into some problems, it seems." He murmured to himself, running his hand over his fine black hair, which was brush-cut to give it some volume. "I will employ the same methods, flush out the birds, and then hopefully Lugia will emerge to "try to quell the fighting", I presume. If I get the birds, it'll be a bonus, but if not, even if I just capture Lugia, I will have finally managed something that Lawrence hasn't!" He smiled. "He always seems to outdo me, and just once I'd like to be able to show him that he's not the only one who can do things. Just this once, I'd like to be able to brag to him about something in my collection."

"Lightning Island, Ice Island, Fire Island, coming into view." The computer told him. "Maps show that a larger inhabited island called Shamouti Island is beyond the other three. This is programmed in as your holiday destination. Do you wish to go there first?"

"No." Cyril said. "I will go there afterwards. Head for Lightning Island and deploy the electricity absorption device. Once Zapdos is caught, I'll get Articuno, and then after that I'll go after Moltres. That should be enough to summon forth Lugia."

Cyril's machine slowly changed course, and began heading for Lightning Island.

Lawrence was resting in the water, lying just on top of the waves, when he spotted Cyril's machine coming over the horizon. This could be it, he thought, hoping and praying that Cyril would go to Shamouti for a rest and some food first. That way, he might be able to get close enough to talk to Cyril without Cyril trying to collect him. Additionally, the islanders themselves would warn him against trying to catch any of the Legendary birds.

'Including, currently, yours truly.' He thought to himself. It would certainly make things easier if Cyril visited Shamouti first.

His hopes were dashed as he saw the machine beginning to change its course to head for Lightning Island, and he gave a Lugia's sigh of exasperation. It looked like poor Ash would again be called upon to risk his life to save the world. Although there could be problems, he suddenly realised. If Cyril caught the three birds, there would be no way for him to harmonise them if they were captive, and to boot he'd have to run the gauntlet of Cyril's force fields anyway. It was possible that the world would end anyway, if Cyril caught the birds.

A thought struck him, He was not the only Lugia in these waters. Somewhere, the original Lugia was waiting to restore him to his natural shape. In essence, Lawrence was surplus to requirements. In fact, he was…..expendable.

'If it saves the world, this will be worth it.' Lawrence thought, as he rose out if the water and flew upwards.

However, even that thought could not quell the churning sickness of fear in his belly.

"Attention, attention. Lugia detected."

The voice of his computer interrupted Cyril as he prepared something to eat while waiting for his machine to reach Lightning Island. Leaving his half-prepared sandwich in the small adjoining kitchen, Cyril bolted back through to his control tower and threw himself into his chair. He saw a shape flying towards him.

"Stop where we are! Magnify!" he commanded. "Times four."

The computer obliged, and Cyril breathed in an awed sigh as he saw Lugia heading towards him, its flight seeming oddly clumsy somehow.

"There it is. So that is Lugia." He breathed. "This is almost too easy." He then addressed his computer.

"Prepare the force-field frames, but don't deploy them until I say so. Let it get closer. The closer it gets, the easier this will be." He turned back to the image of Lugia, and murmured, again to himself, "No wonder Lawrence desired to possess you. He has a good eye for the rare and beautiful, and you are certainly both of those, Lugia."

Lawrence was surprised that Cyril did not immediately move towards him or begin to fire. He began to have hope that he could get close enough to make telepathic contact with Cyril, and avert potential disaster. As he flew towards the machine, counting down the time till he could telepathically contact Cyril, he felt his heart lighten. Perhaps this would all work out after all.

Cyril watched as Lugia got closer and closer. He never took his eyes off the screen. Then Lugia stopped, hovering majestically where it was.

"Too easy." murmured Cyril. Then to the computer: "Now!"

Lawrence saw the spinning triangles emerge from the machine, and his instincts kicked in. He folded his wings and dropped, swooping downwards and then making a sharp turn, trying to shake the force-fields off his trail. He was on his third turn and swooping back up when he remembered that he didn't want to give Cyril any reason to catch any of the other birds. If that meant being captured, then so be it.

Swooping back up, he spread his wings, hovering in front of the incoming frames, and closed his eyes as they swept towards him.

"Well, well, well, what is it doing?" Cyril asked as he saw Lugia turn, and once again hover in midair. It had seemed to stop dodging the fields, just hovering directly in their path. Cyril watched as the fields surrounded Lugia, as programmed, and activated.

Lawrence gave an involuntary warbling cry as the force-frames activated. As a crushing force pressed down on him, he instinctively and consciously strained against them. Terror and pain flooded through him.

'Oh my god, this hurts!' he thought to himself. 'I didn't know that it would hurt! Poor Lugia when I tried to catch him, no wonder he aeroblasted! No wonder Moltres screamed!'

As he felt the field pressing his wings down, he feared falling, but trying to spread his wings merely increased the pain, and he stopped as the pain got so bad it was disabling. As soon as he stopped struggling, the pain abruptly subsided until it was a mild discomfort, and then he remembered the fields would not let him fall. They were designed to return to the machine they had been launched from. When Lawrence had himself attempted to catch Lugia, Lugia's Aeroblast had knocked out the control centre of his own machine, and Lugia had fallen into the ocean with the fields trapping his wings. However, Cyril's control computer was undamaged.

As the fields neared Cyril's machine, Lawrence felt himself becoming incredibly sleepy. 'He's switched on the sleep-inducing field.' He thought to himself. 'Unless he turns it off, I won't be able to communicate with him.' He briefly fought the field, but lost and his eyes closed and his head drooped gracefully on his long neck as the field held him.

Cyril came down five minutes later, and stood admiring the slumbering form for fully five minutes before going back to make his sandwich.

"I wonder why Lawrence had such difficulty? That went as smoothly as anyone could want." he murmured to himself.