Author's Note: This involved a bit of research, but even so, there are probably a dozen or more technical things wrong with it. Sorry. I'm not a pilot or aerospace engineer or anything.

For miles around, all I could see was blue and white. Beneath me, the ocean churned in waves, and clouds filled the sky around me at staggered altitudes. Even the distant coast was little more than a haze, what with the constant fog over there. I glanced back down to the radar, not surprised to see nothing on the screen. After the Coast Defence reported that they didn't have enough available crew to patrol this part of the sea, my aircraft carrier was temporarily reassigned to take over until a more permanent solution was found. I tilted the stick lightly to the left to stay on my patrol route, and as I did so, my radio came to life.

"Victor Fife to Smasher. Do you read? Over."

Victor Fife was the calling signal for my carrier. I switched my transmission on.

"Copy, Victor Fife. This is Smasher. Go ahead. Over."

My callsign was Smasher. It had nothing to do with smashing enemies or anything so cool–the name came from a ground incident in which I accidentally let go of a hammer while fixing up a canister, sending it smashing into a brand-new window in the base. It officially became my callsign two days later.

"Smasher, be aware of reported sightings of Lugia in your area. No specific coordinates. Change bearing to west-southwest and ascend two hundred metres. Do not expect it to show on radar. Report any findings immediately. Over."

"Change bearing to west-southwest and ascend two hundred metres, wilco. Out."

I brought my plane –an interceptor fighter– to face my new bearing, all the while wondering about what the Tower told me. Lugia was spotted in territorial waters? That could be a very bad thing –the pokémon Legendaries had always been unpredictable to us, even if they were rarely spotted. Years ago, Palkia had come to the country, fast approaching a port city. The city was evacuated, and before long, the Legendary arrived and completely razed the place to the ground. The combined military was able to drive it off, but another encounter could prove more disastrous.

Barely a quarter of an hour passed before I was flying above a large formation of clouds and noticed something strange. I glanced over at them, narrowing my eyes behind my visor while also pulling back on the thrust. Something in the clouds seemed to be moving, and I watched as rectangular blue plates slid into view from the white expanse. Soon after, the white torso they were attached to started lifting out of the clouds, revealing a massive white and blue figure that looked part dragon, part bird, and part... whale, I suppose. In any case, it was the unmistakable form of Lugia, made public ever since a submarine crew spotted it three months ago and photographed it. It looked far bigger in real life, though, and I lowered the thrust again to avoid detection when I saw that it was easily several times the length of my fighter.

"Victor Fife, this is Smasher. Lugia spotted at my location. Over."

"Smasher, this is Victor Fife. Copy. Is it heading for the mainland? Over."

"Negative, Victor Fife." I glanced out the cockpit towards the land in the distance. "Lugia is parallel to the coast for now, over."

"Copy. Continue to monitor its activities and report any change in behaviour, over."

"Wilco. Out."

Ahead of me, Lugia ascended into another cloud, making me lose sight of it. I waited for it to reappear, but when it didn't, I carefully started circling upwards, gaining altitude. I still couldn't see any trace of the Legendary, and considered radioing Tower again.

"Victor Fife, this is Smasher. Lugia is out of sight. Over."

As soon as I finished the transmission, I could only hear static in my headset. When it went on without a reply for several seconds, I was about to repeat myself, when I saw something headed fast for me from below.

By reflex, I rolled to the side and pitched upwards, making a fast turn as I narrowly avoided a vortex of air. I upped the throttle and came back the way I was facing to see Lugia floating in the sky, wings spread out and its eyes glowing indigo. It raised its wings higher above its head and flapped them forcefully in my direction, immediately causing a whirlwind.

The whirlwind quickly forced clouds to the sides as it reached me. Fortunately, I was able to escape this as well by using thrust vectoring to turn around and then accelerating away. I rolled slightly to keep an eye on Lugia, only to see it slowly spiralling in the air, apparently dancing. A nearby cloud that hadn't been blown away immediately turned a dark shade of gray, and then another cloud joined it, and then another, until the entire sky was laden with storm clouds.

I flew at a near-vertical angle upwards to get away from the storm as quickly as possible –I'd already have enough to deal with without also having to go against storm winds. Lugia followed, roaring, and I spied it launching a massive stream of water towards me from its mouth. I spiralled around above the attack to escape it, turning around and rushing back to its source, flying around the bird as it tried to land a blow on my plane.

I burst through the clouds, heading towards the sun so that it would hopefully have a hard time aiming at me even as I started turning around. Lugia emerged from the clouds, roaring and looking around for me. It stopped moving and instead hovered, and I spotted my chance.

I gunned the throttle, heading straight for Lugia as it squinted in the sun. I slammed my finger on the triggers, and a volley of rapid-fire rockets burst from my plane.

Lugia must have heard them, however, because it roared and released a massive aeroblast strong enough to disperse all of the rockets. I quickly banked away, knowing that a single hit from Lugia would probably be all it took to take down my plane.

With Lugia now aware of me, I dove against the wind, wanting to avoid Lugia's storm clouds. I poured as much thrust into the engine as I dared, trying my hardest to outmanoeuvre the dragon. I looked back only to see it rushing fast and gaining on me; thinking fast, I fired several rear-facing missiles and pulled up, intending to loop around to end up behind Lugia and give chase away from shore. Lugia was more flexible, though, and with no radar locks on it, Lugia avoided the missiles and turned upside down to take another shot at me.

I did the same, rolled starboard and pulled up, increasing thrust as I did so. So far, neither of us had gotten a hit on the other, and I doubted that I would be able to seriously hurt Lugia even if I did score a single hit.

I considered my options as I again sped away. My fighter, although an interceptor, was a multipurpose aircraft and held a special weapon that would "paint" a target with a material that artillery and other aircraft could see onscreen, helping them lock-on. It was intended for slow or non-moving targets, however, and Lugia was neither. If I could paint it, though, I might have a chance of beating it.

Lugia was approaching again, firing a hydro pump. I dodged out of the way and tried my best to move unpredictably to avoid the jet of water trying to anticipate my moves. I got an idea, and doubled back, making a beeline for Lugia as soon as the hydro pump ended. Pokémon –no matter how strong– always needed at least some time between moves, and I took my chance, thrusting almost to the limit. I fired my machine gun at Lugia, and though it did almost nothing to hurt it due to its massive size, it did anger the dragon. It roared at me, jaws wide open as I kept pushing forward. Just as we were close enough that it could try to bite my plane, I veered up.

Less than a second later, I fired chaff from the back of the plane, right in Lugia's face. It roared in response, and I hoped that I'd blinded it.

I made a sharp rolling turn to face back around. Lugia was writhing in midair, but I knew my window of opportunity was small. I fired the radar paint while Lugia was still distracted, and pulled away again as soon as I saw the black paint mark spread all across its back.

The direct hit was good news, but I had to make good use of it. I moved into a circling position overhead as Lugia apparently shook off the effect of the chaff and roared, swinging its head violently in an attempt to find me. I dove and this time saw it on my radar. I readied four missiles and waited until they were locked, and then fired.

Lugia heard the sound of my plane and the missiles and looked up straight at me. Now I had to make sure it didn't attempt to blow away the guided missiles. I banked port, firing the side machine gun and releasing volleys of fast, unguided rockets. I launched the one flare my fighter held, intending to blind Lugia with the brightness, and banked again, keeping up the fire.

Lugia roared violently, blasting the oncoming projectiles with whirlwinds and gusts of air. Two of the guided missiles failed in the onslaught, but I managed to get Lugia to focus on the rockets and me instead. I was hoping that it hadn't yet realized that the missiles were following it, and I kept up the pressure.

Suddenly, I heard two loud explosions and then a horrifically loud, pained roar. With Lugia off-guard, I was able to quickly fire several rockets into it, and then it suddenly dove straight down.

I cursed and did my best to follow without pushing my anti-g suit past its limits and blacking out. I couldn't dive straight down like Lugia, and I couldn't see it very well either with the cloud cover.

I eventually reached the lowest clouds and emerged from them, looking out for any surprise attack from other clouds. I circled around where Lugia would have hit the water and noticed some rippling waves emanating in a circle from one point. I cursed again. If I had only succeeded in driving Lugia underwater, it could very well simply be hiding and waiting to reemerge at a later date without anyone to fend it off.

The most unnerving part was that nobody knew anything about the Legendaries. Prior to the last few years, sightings of them were ultra-rare. Then, suddenly, people were seeing them everywhere, and eleven attacks on seven cities around the world showed that they meant trouble.

So far, though, Lugia had never been reported as an attacker. I knew nearly nothing about its capabilities and absolutely nothing about its intentions.

Suddenly, a huge spray of water burst from the ocean, and I quickly veered toward the source and spotted Lugia's massive body emerging from the waters. I gritted my teeth. I was running out of ammunition, fast, and the water had seemingly washed off the radar paint. I didn't think Lugia would fall for the same trick twice and I was running out of options to beat it.

Just as I was about to fire another salvo of rockets, a massive cone of air shot from Lugia's body, creating massive waves in the air and water. Before I could react, it caught me. And then everything stopped.

The instruments in the cockpit froze. The dials froze. The close-proximity alarm died. The waves froze. The air froze. I couldn't move my body, but I could still think. Far ahead, Lugia was likewise immobile. What was going on?

Something detached itself from Lugia's body, a spectral entity that gradually emerged and took form. Suddenly, I was reminded of my circumstances, and I could feel my stomach tightening: I knew nothing about Lugia. Its capabilities may as well be divine even among pokémon, the most amazing creatures on Earth.

The spectral being spread its wings, and I realized that it was Lugia. It looked me in the eye. Its own eyes were burning cyan, just like a psychic's. Then its entire body took on a cyan hue. Then the ocean. Then my cockpit. And then everything in my field of view was a deep, metallic cyan, and I could see nothing else.

My mind suddenly felt heavy. Like a blanket covering my thoughts, the world seemed to dull and slow, even though my eyes couldn't give me a sense of time. I tried to figure out what was going on, but struggled hard to think at all.

And abruptly all of it was gone, colour and detail flooded my vision, time moved, my cockpit was screaming at me in beeps and alarms, and I gasped violently for air, managing to yank the stick back and pull my aircraft up.

As I caught my breath I tried to bank again to see Lugia, trying to see if it was giving chase, but was surprised to see it hovering over the same spot, craning its neck to look at me, its mouth closed. Then it turned around and slowly but surely started flying up and away, the shore directly behind it.

I scrambled for my radio's transmission button and called out, as I dialled down the thrust:

"Victor Fife, Victor Fife. This is Smasher, this is Smasher. Contact with Lugia, it is driven off. Repeat, it is driven off. Over."

The reply was almost immediate:

"Smasher, this is Victor Fife. Do not pursue. Circle and ensure security. Gamma Squadron on its way to take over reconnaissance. Return to carrier once they rendezvous at your location. Over."

"Victor Fife, this is Smasher. Copy. Out."

I released the transmit button and kept circling, throttling down some more. I watched Lugia's receding figure hovering just over the water. Had it read my mind? Why did it suddenly go off like that?

Regardless of the answer, I was glad to still be alive, and even more glad to have potentially averted disaster and saved lives. The Legendaries were still a mystery to us all, but I couldn't help but wonder if today I had found an intensely powerful being of empathy and graciousness.