Finding Melody proved to be fairly easy, at least compared to some of the stuff we had had to do lately. When we arrived at Shamouti Airport, we decided to stop at the snack bar and buy ourselves some milk shakes. As we sat drinking them - we all ordered strawberry except for Justine who asked for banana - a young dark-haired woman wearing a waitress's uniform and with a name-badge bearing the word "Carol" in sans serif letters pinned to her top came to talk to us.

"Hi," she said. "Pardon me for intruding, but you're the first customers we've had in weeks - since all that trouble started over on the mainland, hardly anyone comes here anymore."

"Has there been trouble over here as well?" I asked, taking the straw out of my mouth long enough to speak.

Carol sighed and began talking about how fierce waves had battered the Island and of the impending sense of doom that hung in the air. It was a feeling we all knew only too well, having seen for ourselves just how much damage had already been done to the world in the absence of a Lugia - and those events were just a taster for what would happen if the Age of Twilight DID descend. "My sister tried to summon the Great Guardian," she told us. "Ever since what happened here a few years ago, we've thrown more into the Legend Festival than we ever did in living memory . . ."

"Your sister?" Jodie echoed. "The Great Guardian?"

Carol nodded and described how, long ago, Shamouti Island was much larger, being home to five majestic Legendary Pokemon - Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Lugia and Ho-oh. But one day, four out of the five quarrelled over territory and their Attacks caused three small peninsulas to break away from the main Island. These would later come to be known as Fire Island, Ice Island and Lightning Island, but the warring Birds still would not settle their differences - until a young girl sought aid from Lugia.

Together, Lugia and the girl - whose name was Calliope - managed to quell the Birds and imposed an edict which said they and the ones who followed them must never, under any circumstances, be captured. If they were, nature would be thrown out of balance again, a balance which only a "Chosen One" would be able to rectify - Ho-oh was given the job of patrolling the land in search of potential candidates while Lugia would stay in the ocean until needed. As a final reminder, Lugia presented Calliope with a Sacred Flute, one of the few things that could rouse a Lugia, to be passed through the female line of her family.

"So Calliope became the first Festival Maiden," Carol concluded. "And we have re-enacted the Legend every year since - unfortunately, as time passed, we began to forget its real purpose and see it more as an excuse to wear exotic masks. That is until the last time Lugia emerged . . ."

---------------------------

We all stared at Carol as the truth dawned on us - she was Melody's sister, related to the Festival Maiden and a direct descendent of Calliope, the girl who helped Lugia so long ago. "You mean Melody's YOUR sister?" asked Milly in evident amazement. "The Festival Maiden?"

Carol averted her eyes slightly. "Not for much longer," she said. "Every Maiden has to retire after a certain number of years and Melody's term is almost up - when it does expire, I don't know what will happen. We don't have any female cousins the right age and my daughter's too young . . ." She reached into her skirt pocket and pulled out a photo of a little girl holding a stuffed Teddiursa.

"Candida," Carol went on once we had all had chance to examine the picture. "She'll make a great Festival Maiden when she gets a bit older." She spoke not with the air of a mother boasting of her child's accomplishments but of someone stating something they firmly believed to be true.

"That's all well and good," I cut in at length. "But it's Melody we came to see."

-------------------------------

On the way to Carol's home, I told Carol everything I could about our mission, about Lawrence, the quest to recover the Orb of Twilight and everything - I even included the fact that my friends and I could morph into Pokemon. When I had finished, Carol smiled and said:

"Of course! Why didn't I think of it before? When the Psyrene and Po-psydron disappeared, I knew it had to be bad - it just never occurred to me that Lawrence might be involved again. We all thought he'd learnt his lesson after the last time."

"Some people never change," Michaela said grimly, before telling Carol all about the close call we had had with Lawrence only a few days earlier.

--------------------------------

As it turned out, Melody was only too willing to help us - as a child, Carol explained, she had been sceptical of the Legend Festival and had only reluctantly agreed to become the Festival Maiden. But, after what happened during her first year in the post, she now knew the full significance of her role.

"Sure, I'll play Lugia's song," she said as we sat in the living room of the house she lived in with Carol and her family. "Only, I tried that as soon as this . . . what was it you called it?"

"Age of Twilight," supplied Justine.

"Right - it just slipped my mind for a second." Melody laughed briefly and flicked back her long dark hair. "Anyway, I tried calling Lugia when I realised something was wrong - but Lugia didn't emerge and, then, I heard this terrible squawking from the Birds. I don't know why, but it sounded to me like they were mourning something . . ."

Hearing this, we quickly explained that they must have been mourning Lugia, not only the Lugia who had died but the whole race which was doomed without the Orb of Twilight. "Well, we've got both," I explained as we showed Melody the Orb and the Egg we had recovered from Lawrence not long before.

Melody clapped her hands. "This is perfect!" she exclaimed happily. "With the Orb in Place, the next Lugia will awaken to the sound of my flute!"

She got up and went to look for her Flute on the shelf where she kept it - finding only dust, she ran out of the room and returned moments later holding the little girl from Carol's picture by the hand. The child was wearing a pink dress and had what could only be the Flute clutched tightly in her free hand. Seeing this, Carol snatched the Flute away and began berating her daughter.

"How many times, Candida? You - don't - touch - Auntie - Melody's - Flute! How did you get it down from the shelf anyway?"

Candida - who looked about three years old - smiled furtively. "I ain't telling," she said firmly. But we all noticed that she shot a quick glance at the family's pet Pidgeotto, currently seated firmly on his perch and looking as though stealing flutes was the last thing on his mind.

"That doesn't matter," Melody said, hurriedly cleaning the Flute on her jeans. "What's important right now is getting the Egg Hilary and the others brought to hatch."

-------------------------------

None of us - since we had never been to Shamouti until now - had ever heard anything like the tune Melody played as we stood on the cliffs overlooking the sea. It sounded soothing but it also made me want to defend the world at all costs - or at least that's the best I can do at putting into words the sheer drama of what was unfolding around us.

At length, the egg began to crack and emitted a light so powerful that it lit up the whole of the sky and forced us to close our eyes for several seconds. When we opened them again, a Lugia was hovering majestically in mid-air, fully grown within moments of hatching and ready to fulfil its duties as the Great Guardian.

"The Great Guardian is restored," the Lugia said in a voice that was softer and higher pitched than that of the one we had met a few weeks earlier. It also had a daintier build than its predecessor, leading me to suspect that this Lugia might well be female.

I did not have time to speculate on this, however, before three large Birds appeared and formed a line in mid-air, directly opposite Lugia. Moltres was at the apex, her plumage even more magnificent than I remembered from when she came to Neptune Island, flanked by a yellow Bird with wings shaped like lightning bolts and a blue Bird with a long flowing tail. I had never seen either of the latter, but I knew they had to be Articuno and Zapdos.

Lugia began to address them.

"Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres - already danger threatens us," she explained. "The Collector has been freed from the humans' jail - I sensed him drawing nearer as soon as I hatched - and he cares for nothing except getting revenge against my kind. So I need the three of you to work with me and drive this menace out of our lives once and for all . . ."

----------------------------------

With that, she took off into the air with Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres close behind - as it turned out, they acted none too soon because it wasn't long before a helicopter appeared overhead, with Lawrence at the controls. It was clear that he was not prepared to rest until he had achieved his revenge against Lugia's kind.

But Lugia was ready for him - wasting no time, she nodded to the others and they took up position around the helicopter, making sure that, whichever way Lawrence turned, he would have a Legendary Pokemon to contend with. They were a truly magnificent sight - Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Lugia all working together to vanquish the man who had caused them so much trouble not long ago.

Unable to help myself, I called up to them.

"Lugia!" I shouted above the whirring of the helicopter's rotor blades. "What do you want us to do?"

Lugia turned to look at me. "You and your friends fulfilled your role by bringing back the Orb of Twilight," she told me in her soft voice. "This part of the plan belongs to myself and to Articuno and the others."

--------------------------------

It was a battle like none I had ever witnessed before - four Legendary Pokemon shooting powerful beams of fire, ice, lightning and energy at Lawrence's helicopter. Needless to say, it wasn't built to stand up to such punishment and, before long, they managed to force it down and Lawrence to bail out.

But Lawrence clearly wasn't finished yet because the first thing he did was grab the Orb of Twilight from the rock where we had placed it while Melody summoned Lugia. It began to glow bright red in his hands, but he calmly ignored this, raised the Orb above his head and dashed it to pieces on the rocks below. Immediately, Lugia plummeted out of the sky and fell to earth - unconscious.

I was close to tears - I know it's a cliche, but it's true - wondering if we had come this far only to fail at the last hurdle. Looking round at the others, I could tell they all felt the same way - Milly and Michaela were holding onto each other, Justine and Jodie were silent and Melody had slumped to the ground clutching her Flute. I knew from what I had witnessed lately, combined with information I had obtained from Justine, that the Orb of Twilight was Lugia's life force; without its power, she would die within hours.

At length, Carol appeared holding Candida by the hand - she had not been present during the battle and was surprised to see our downcast faces. Her eyes brimming with tears, Melody turned to look at her sister and niece.

"Carol," she choked out. "Lugia . . ."

-------------------------------

This was it. This was really it.

The Age of Twilight was going to descend upon the world thanks to one human's selfish ambitions - and no Orb of Twilight meant the Lugia lying on the ground would be the last of her line. Even the Legendary Birds were milling around, looking as thought they had no idea what to do next.

"What did you go and do that for?!" snapped Michaela, rounding on Lawrence - for her, the destruction of the Orb of Twilight was clearly the last straw and, before we could stop her, she morphed into her Raichu form. Then, she let fly with a Thundershock and knocked Lawrence sprawling on the ground.

Picking himself up, he hurriedly regained his composure. "I'll tell you what for!" he snapped. "To make my revenge complete!"

"But by destroying the Orb, you're destroying the world!" Jodie told him from where she knelt beside the fallen Lugia. "Do you really want to die for the sake of getting even with a Pokemon? And besides, that Lugia wasn't the one who destroyed all your stuff."

-----------------------------

But it turned out that Lawrence's destiny was destined - no pun intended - to go unfulfilled again. Even as we were preparing ourselves for the worst, a huge tidal wave heralded the arrival of the Psyrene and Po-psydron we had freed from Mount Moon not long ago.

Moving as one, they advanced on Lawrence and surrounded him on all sides. Then, before he could even think of resisting, two Po-psydron grabbed him by the arms and began to drag him into the sea. Realising the danger he was in, Lawrence panicked and began to kick out at his captors.

"HEY! What are you doing?!" he yelled as they pulled him into the deep water. "Let me go!"

Seeing this, I realised that, no matter how much trouble Lawrence had caused, I couldn't let the Psyrene and Po-Psydron drown him. Racing round the headland, I raised my arms and called out at the top of my voice.

"STOP!"

"Psydron?" said the nearest Po-psydron as he raised his trident questioningly. Then it occured to me that the Psyrene we had met at the start of all this had to be exceptional - it was too much to expect that an entire race of Pokemon would have mastered human language. I morphed into my Bellossom form and told him again.

"No, Po-psydron - if you kill him, you'll be as bad as he is," I told him. "I think he deserves some other kind of punishment . . ."

----------------------------

It did not take long for the Psyrene and Po-psydron to decide what to do with Lawrence - for twice endangering the world with his grandiose schemes, he would be condemned to spend the rest of his life in the form of a Po-psydron, living as one of the Pokemon he had tried to wipe out. He submitted meekly, evidently realising that he was beaten and his best option was to go along with his captors. But that still left us with one problem.

"Lugia's fading fast," Melody announced as she and Jodie continued struggling to keep the magnificent creature alive. Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres had landed on the ground next to the two girls and had their heads bowed as a gesture of respect for their comrade.

It was the Psyrene who provided the answer - in unison, they dived into the sea and returned moments later with a newly reconstituted Orb of Twilight. I smiled as it dawned on me that something as powerful as the Orb would surely need more than being thrown against some rocks to break it.

Sensing the solemnity of what I was about to do, I carried the Orb over to Lugia and placed it beside her. "Melody, the Flute," I said as the Orb started to glow, its power awakened.

Once more, Melody started to play her haunting tune and the Orb of Twilight started to glow. A beam of rainbow-like light shot out from the orb and converged on Lugia, levitating her high into the air. Then, with the air of one waking from a pleasent nap, she yawned and stretched her magnificent wings.

-------------------------------

"It is over," Lugia told us. "And before any lasting harm was done."

"You mean . . .?" Jodie asked. "This is it?"

Lugia nodded. "Yes - the Age of Twilight is over before it really began." She turned to look at the three Birds and beckoned them to follow her.

"Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres - return to your Islands!" she commanded. "And, now, I too must retire to my chamber beneath the sea." With that, she flew up high and prepared to dive into the water.

"Wait!" I called, not wanting her to leave just yet. "Will we ever see you again?"

Lugia looked at me from her lofty position and smiled. "Perhaps," she told me. "If the world is threatened again and I am forced to re-emerge."

With those words, she turned, dived into the water and disappeared from view.

---------------------------

*THE END*

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