Prologue. A Stormy Night

The mission was simple: subdue the parent and take the child. Easy peasy – he had performed more difficult operations before – nothing should go wrong.

Daniel and his teammates had travelled all the way to the beach as planned and had begun setting up their equipment. The sky was ominously dark with storm clouds, rain falling down getting heavier by the second.

"Groups one to four onto the boats and scan the ocean floor – find our target," Daniel had commanded. "Five and six, net guns. Seven to nine prepare to subdue the adult."

The grunts had shouted their understanding with a "Yes, sir!" and ran into their positions, boats moved from trucks to the sea and net guns switched on. Above them, another group hovered in a helicopter, prepared to drop a trap on their target once it had been taken out of the depths of the ocean.

The ocean itself seemed to be steely grey in the cover of storm clouds, broken by pale grey bubbles as, one by one, grunts began diving underwater. Daniel smiled to himself – now it was just a waiting game.

"You, stop!"

Daniel turned to face an elderly gentleman hobbling towards him with a young boy trotting at his heels. The boy looked scared, his eyes darting constantly to the sea and back to him. "May I help you?" Daniel asked stoically.

"You must stop what you are doing right away," the elderly gentle man warned, wheezing slightly from exhaustion. "If you anger the Pokemon that lives in these waters then Arceus help us!"

"I ensure you that we are not her to anger this pokemon," Daniel informed him. "We are here for another matter."

"The child," the elderly man wheezed in understanding. "You are here for the Pokemon's child, aren't you? Then you will anger it anyway; this Pokemon is very protective of its young!"

"What we are after is not of your concern, sir," Daniel said politely but with venom in his eyes. He did hope the elderly gentleman knew when he was being threatened.

Daniel tossed a pokeball onto the ground which opened with a flash of bright light. "Drapion!" cried the pokemon as it was released. It looked at Daniel then turned its eyes to the elderly gentleman, opening the pincers on its long arms threateningly.

"Now I do hope you won't get in our way," Daniel warned. "I don't want anything to happen to that young boy there."

The elderly gentleman paled, holding an arm in front of what Daniel could only assume was his grandson protectively. Daniel didn't even blink and turned away, walking towards the grunts.

There was a burst of static in his earpiece. "We've found it sir!" said a grunt from the other end.

"Excellent," daniel said with a small grin. "Bring it back to the shore." He clicked a button on the earpiece cutting off communication. "Prepare yourselves. The target has been found and the parent won't be far away."

"Please, stop it!"

Daniel whirled around to see the boy – he seemed around six years old with an untidy mop of golden hair and bright blue eyes – and sighed. "Drapion, grab him," he commanded.

Almost immediately, two pairs of shining pincers clutched at the boy's waist and lifted him up with no hesitation.

"Leo!" wheezed the elderly gentleman who began hobbling towards them.

Daniel held up a hand. "Don't come any further if you want the boy unharmed," he hissed. Almost immediately, the man stopped and sent a furious glare at him. Daniel opened his mouth to say something when a loud, high pitched wailing sound pierced the silence.

He turned and watched as the boats returned and tangled up in a net was their target – a small bird like pokemon with silver feathers and sapphire blue eyes framed with lighter blue feathers that also decorated its back and belly. At last – baby Lugia, Daniel thought proudly. "Put the boy down," he told drapion, who unceremoniously dropped Leo.

Daniel walked forwards, staring at the baby lugia in fascination. It let out a pitiful wail once more that echoed loudly in the relative silence of the cove. As he approached it, it looked up at him eyes wide in fear.

"There you are you beauty," Daniel muttered quietly, crouching down. He reached a hand forward to touch it – he still wasn't confident that it is was real they spent so much time tracking down its location – when a louder and angry sounding screech echoed from the ocean.

Daniel stood up straight. "Prepare yourselves!" He yelled as the parent burst out from the ocean, large wings beating the air into violent gusts of winds. The grunts cried out in fear as they threw pokebals, releasing their pokemon. Those on the net guns aimed them towards the parent.

Daniel found it difficult to stand as the winds created by the adult lugia got stronger and it beat its wings more and more. The adult screeched loudly, a ball of what looked like storm clouds building up in its mouth. "Drapion, use dark pulse!" Daniel shouted.

As the lugia fired its attack – he recognized it as aeroblast – as drapion fired its own attack to block it. The two attacks clashed for a couple of seconds before eventually drapion's dark pulse failed. The aeroblast surged forward and hit drapion with full force. Drapion was sent flying backwards and hit a large rock sticking out of the sand that had probably fallen off a cliff face.

A series of three loud and shrill cries echoed from above the clouds and Daniel's heart sunk. He pressed the button on the earpiece. "Celia, hurry up and drop the cage on the baby lugia!" He yelled into the device as he watched as a flamethrower, ice beam and thunderbolt burst through the thick layer of storm clouds above them.

"The parent hasn't been subdued though!" Squeaked the female commander.

Daniel resisted the urge to yell at her – she was the youngest of all the commanders and largely the most innocent – and instead just said calmly, "there's been a complication. We need to get the child out of here now."

A high pitched "okay" was muttered and the helicopter moved over them. A large metal cage began to be lowered down from the helicopter….barely missing a thunderbolt as zapdos flew past it and down towards Daniel and the other grunts. They had been warned that lugia – as their trio master – could summon the three legendary birds that lived nearby.

Daniel ducked down, making a dash towards the baby lugia dodging the panicked grunts and furious attacks of the birds.

"Cunooo!" screeched articuno as it swooped down, firing off an ice beam that blocked his way.

"Drapion, use cross poison!" Daniel yelled angrily. The dark and poison type pokemon ran past him as fast as it could, pincers glowing pink as it leaped up and slashed its arms down in an X shape, striking the ice bird pokemon who was sent flying with a loud screech.

Tossing another pokeball, a houndoom being released. "Flamethrower," Daniel commanded. The pokemon used flamethrower to melt the ice as the metal trap finally reached the ground, surrounding the young lugia. Daniel ran and secured the trap so the child couldn't escape and the trap began to be lifted. Pitiful wails sounded from inside the trap.

One by one, the net guns fired wire nets at the three birds and adult lugia. The adult lugia was successfully trapped in a net, falling down into the ocean with an angry screech. Unfortunately the birds weren't caught, the attacks destroying the nets before they even got close. Moltres and articuno swooped down attacking them constantly.

Zapdos, however, flew upwards chasing after the helicopter that had begun flying away. It let out a loud screech, releasing electricity in all directions with discharge. The helicopter began to spark and small explosions detonated along the side as the wire holding the trap broke. The momentum of the explosions sent the cage flying and, as the helicopter began to fall, it was hit by the tail and sent flying further and further away. Zapdos began to fly after it when a net was fired from one of the guns, successfully trapping it as it fell down.

In a forest far away…

The pokemon were restless; they could hear the screeches of an angry pokemon from far away but didn't know what to do. "Eev eevee!" a wild eevee cried in alarm as a large dark object flew towards them. The pokemon scattered as the object fell to the ground with a large thunk.