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Reaching the summit of Mount Moon took no time at all thanks to the Horses of Twilight, but we still didn't know what we would find when we got there.
It turned out that we were just in time because, even as Chilval and Dynahorse set us down, we saw a tall man standing there holding something above his head. We needed no-one to tell us that this was Lawrence and the thing he was holding was the Orb of Twilight - which was glowing white hot in his hands as he prepared to do whatever it was he planned to do.
There was a Pokemon egg at his feet, but it looked like none I had ever seen before. It was about size of a human baby, and it appeared to be made of solid gold. With a sickening feeling in my stomach, I realised that this was the Legendary Egg we had been searching for - it all came down to this, a face off with the man who had twice disrupted the balance of nature and endangered Lugia.
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Without thinking, I ran forward as Lawrence began mumbling something in a strange language - instinct told me that whatever he was saying had to be bad and I meant to stop him at all costs.
"Stop!" I yelled as I leapt at him and tried to wrestle the Orb of Twilight out of his grasp. But he kept such a tight hold of it that I was completely unable to get it away from him - with a snort of contempt, he flung me to one side as if I was a piece of litter and continued his strange ritual.
It was now or never - we had to launch an assault from all sides. I called on Sophie and morphed into my Bellossom form, as Justine, Milly, Michaela and Jodie did likewise with their own Pokemon and Pokemon forms. Then, it was Adam's turn - since he couldn't morph himself, he elected to use all his Pokemon at once and threw four Poke Balls simultaneously.
"Rapidash! Noctowl! Scizor! Golem!" he called as he released his team. "Go!"
It was sixteen Pokemon against one human and we would have had the advantage normally. But Lawrence had the Orb of Twilight so this battle proved harder than we had anticipated - several times, Sophie and I tried to Solarbeam him only for the Orb to glow and throw up some kind of invisible wall that no Pokemon Attack could possibly penetrate.
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Lawrence gloated with the self-satisfied expression of one who knows the day is his and watched nonchallently as Ledian and Justine attacked from the air, trying repeatedly to grab the Orb of Twilight and get it out of his reach. "It is time," he said simply. And the Orb glowed blood-red and sent a powerful beam towards every Pokemon present, making them sit bolt upright with a start and causing their eyes to glaze over and their faces to become passive and unresponsive.
Jodie's Mareep was the first to succumb - she suddenly paused in the midst of battle and turned on Adam, firing such a powerful Thundershock at him that he was knocked sprawling on the ground. Seeing this, Jodie (we seemed to be unaffected since we were merely humans in Pokemon form) changed back into her human form and ran towards him.
"Adam!" she yelled. "Are you OK?"
But morphing back to human form was a big mistake - she had barely run three feet before Justine's Ledian and her own Xatu ambushed her from the air. They launched a powerful assault, with Xatu combining her Psychic Attack with Ledian's Comet Punch, and they soon had Jodie pinned down.
"Xatu - what are you DOING?!" Jodie pleaded as she struggled to hold Xatu back with one hand and reach for her Poke Ball with the other. I could barely see her from where I was, but I could tell she was in serious trouble. This had to be one of the things Psyrene had warned us about - "Pokemon will turn against trainer," she had said. And now it looked as if ours WERE turning against us.
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Wasting no time, I leapt into the fray, not caring that a Bellossom was at a disadvantage against a Xatu and a Ledian, and braced myself to use Solarbeam in the hope of putting them out of commission. Calling out in Bellossom language I drew the energy from the sun into my body and let it build up until I was ready to release it.
Ledian barely had time to gasp before she fell to the ground in a faint, followed moments later by Xatu who landed with her wings spread out. But a quick glance backwards told me that this battle was far from over . . .
All the Pokemon who were still standing - the real Pokemon that is - had their eyes glowing red and instinct told me that they were under the control of the Orb of Twilight. Lawrence was standing in the spot he had been when we first arrived and he appeared to be the one responsible for what was happening.
Then he spoke in a disturbingly calm voice.
"Pokemon, nearby are six fakes," he told our Pokemon as I realised to my horror that he meant us. "I want you all to seek them out and DESTROY THEM!"
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I winced as Adam's Rapidash and Milly's Flareon aimed their Flamethrowers in my direction - I would have tried a counterattack, but I knew I'd stand no chance against two Fire Types while I was in my Bellossom form. Was this how it was going to end? Had we come this far only to be beaten by our own Pokemon?
Thinking fast, I quickly somersaulted over their heads and landed on Chilval's back. The cold of her body made me wince even more than the flames from Flareon and Rapidash had, but I knew she was my only hope now.
Being a Legendary Horse, she seemed unaffected by the power of the Orb, as did Flarequine and Dynahorse. But I wasn't sure if even they would be able to handle so many opponents between just the three of them so I wanted some means to get away - preferably with Sophie at least - if things turned really ugly.
"Quick, Chilval!" I told her, morphing back into my human form so I could hang on easier. "Get me into the air and use your Ice Beam to knock that Orb out of Lawrence's hands!"
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There are few who can justifiably claim to have battled alongside a Legendary Pokemon, much less commanded one - Ash Ketchum, which I had learned was the name of the boy who helped Lugia the last time Lawrence caused trouble, had been one and now it looked as though I would join the select few.
"Chilval, quick!" I called from the back of the Legendary Ice Horse. "Get ready to use your Ice Beam when I give the signal!"
But Chilval didn't have a chance - before she could get within range of Lawrence, the Orb sent a powerful blast of light similar to a Hyperbeam in our direction. The next thing I knew, I was falling through the air and Adam's Noctowl was ambushing me.
Noctowl launched repeated Peck and Swift Attacks as I struggled to shield myself, not daring to morph since I knew a Bellossom would be weak in a battle against a Noctowl even if it wasn't controlled by the Orb of Twilight. At that moment, I couldn't help wishing that my Pokemon form could have been an Electric Type like Michaela's or even another Flying Type.
Then, just as I landed painfully on the ground, I saw Lawrence turn to Noctowl with a disturbingly calm expression on his face.
"Noctowl, use Hyperbeam to finish her!" he ordered.
I was trapped and so were the others - looking round, I could see Milly, Jodie and Justine cornered by their own Pokemon, while Adam and Michaela lay unconscious, having evidently tried to wrestle the Orb away from Lawrence only for it to fell them with its power. I knew there was nothing I could do to defend myself against the incoming Hyperbeam, although I did squeeze myself into a ball in the hope of providing a smaller target than I would otherwise.
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I must have blacked out then because, when I opened my eyes, I was in what seemed to be a cave cut out of the mountain. All my human companions where there too as were several Psyrene and Po-psydron.
The Psyrene looked just like the one depicted by Justine's statuette, beautiful mermaid-like Pokemon with long flowing tails and golden hair that looked as though it should have been their crowning glory but was lank and matted on all of them. The Po-psydron were larger and bearded, each of them armed with a trident in his right hand. But what struck me about both species was that they must have been down here for weeks with no access to water - and, for a Water Pokemon, that meant almost certain doom.
Jodie was attending to a young Psyrene who lay semi-conscious from lack of water, giving her sips from a drinks carton she had found in her pocket. "Who would do this?" she wondered out loud as she anxiously watched the Psyrene's face for any signs of improvement.
"Lawrence III, that's who," Justine said bitterly. "Looks like he trapped the Psyrene and Po-psydron here because he knew they wouldn't last long without water. And I haven't seen Ledian since we got here."
That reminded me of something and I groped in my pockets for Sophie's Poke Ball. Finding them both empty, I immediately guessed what had happened and where she was now. "I don't have Sophie either," I said. "What about the rest of you? Do you still have your Pokemon?"
As one, Adam, Jodie, Milly and Michaela shook their heads. "Lawrence must have them," I said grimly. "And we can't do anything stuck in here . . ."
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We had been in trouble before, but never anything like this - if the Psyrene and Po-psydron died, there would be nothing to protect the Orb of Twilight and the new Lugia, assuming one did emerge, from power-hungry megalomaniacs like Lawrence. We would have to escape somehow and, when we did, Lawrence would have a lot to answer for.
And where were the Horses? Had they really been trying to help us or were the legends that the world was doomed if they were seen together going to come true? I could hardly bring myself to imagine Fuchsia City, the place where my friends and I had grown up, destroyed and the whole world along with it. For the umpteenth time since we had become involved in this, I wondered what had motivated Lawrence.
Was it a desire for revenge because Lugia had all but destroyed his collection of stuff to do with Legendary Pokemon? I felt sure it was, but we needed to get to Lawrence before he caused any more trouble - and he was probably long gone, and the Orb of Twilight with him, by now.
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