Lincoln and Lisa stand across from each other in the backyard, their parents hovering on the sidelines along with the rest of their siblings, as well as Sam and the other pokémon. Zap in on the ground in front of him, just a foot and half away, and glaring up at Thunder, who simply looks down its stubby beak at the electric-type from where it flaps in the air near Lisa's head. Confident, despite the type match up that places it squarely at a disadvantage.

Honestly, Lincoln isn't even sure if that's in his favor. He vaguely remembers looking up pokémon levels and evolution when he was still playing the games. And what he does remember leaves him a little hesitant. He's not sure if levels are still a thing that applies here. This is the real world, not a video game after all. But if they do, then there's a not insignificant chance that he and Zap are pretty much outclassed.

At best, Thunder is at least level 20, freshly evolved and still getting used to the larger wingspan and gained weight that comes from rapidly growing an additional three feet and fourty-some odd pounds in about three seconds. But the chances of that being the case are extremely low.

It's unfortunately more likely that Thunder is higher than level 20.

Lincoln's unsure of Zap's own level in comparison, but he somehow doubts that it's even half of Thunder's.

Well, there's only one way to find out…

"Lisa, you ready?" He asks. There's a strange tension in the air suddenly, and it makes him yell a little louder than he normally would.

Lisa shuffles about a little from where she stands, very nearly the entirety of the backyard between the two of them, and he can practically see the nerves spilling off of her in waves.

"Yeah!" she calls back, more steel in her voice than he thinks she actually feels. But he's not gonna call her on it.

"Ok, then I'll start!"

"Bring it!"

Lincoln takes a deep breathe in, reminding himself that this isn't the battle against the nidoking earlier. There's no desperate need to solve a problem before people get hurt. Just a small training battle for fun between two siblings to test the strength of their newly gained pokémon…

"Zap, start us off with a Quick Attack!"

"Pika!" the little mouse chirps, cheeks sparking dangerously for a minute, before he's off and bolting across the yard nearly as fast as a car. Lisa watches, clearly mystified by the apparent show of speed, and flinches back when she hears Thunder give a disgruntled cry. The flying pokemon's wings kick up a wind strong enough to send her hair blowing every which way as it just barely dodges the little mouse in time, Zap coming to a skidding stop a few feet behind the two.

"So fast!"

"Lisa, you gotta give Thunder an order! Tell it to attack or something!" Lincoln calls out. For a grand total of what feels like five minutes, but is actually probably something closer to thirty seconds, Lisa stares at him like he's grown three heads when no one was looking.

"What?"

He groans. Remembering at that exact moment that though Lisa is smart, practically a genius in her own right, she knows next to nothing about pokémon. Anything she does know, she learned from him. But because it had been a video game back then, and therefore didn't really apply to the real world and actual science, she didn't actually retain anything beyond the most basic of information.

Off the top of his head, he doesn't know many moves that Thunder could possibly know. One or two come to mind, but he figures its better than the absolute blank slate that Lisa is working with.

"Tell it to use… oh, I don't know… Wing Attack!"

"Ugh, um… ok!" Lisa says, "Thunder! Use Wing Attack!"

Lincoln prepares to tell Zap to dodge, fully expecting for the flying-type to retaliate with incredible prejudice. But Thunder simply continues to hover in the air, staring incredulously at Lisa and Lincoln both.

"Hey!" Lisa calls, "What gives? I told you to attack!"

"Uh… fooey… hold on…" Lincoln hums, pulling out his phone. He looks up the Wikipedia for Noctowl, digging around for a list of moves the pokémon could possibly know. "Crap…" He says, realizing his mistake. Wing Attack isn't a move noctowls learn as they level up. It's move that has to be bred into them. And though Thunder is clearly a shiny, that doesn't mean he knows any moves he can't get under normal circumstances.

"Ok… um… try Tackle or Peck then!" He offers finally. Feeling more than a little foolish.

"Are you sure?" Lisa asks, and there is far more doubt in her voice than Lincoln is strictly comfortable with.

"Yeah!"

"Ok! You hear that Thunder? Use Pick!"

"Not 'pick', Lisa, Peck. PECK!"

"Yeah, yeah, fine, whatever! Thunder use Peck!"

"Hoo-hoo!" the bird pokémon chirps, before letting out a shrill war cry and charging straight at Zap. Zap squeals in fear as the large bird zips straight at him, just barely managing to stumble out of the way in time to not get hit. Instead, he gets knocked over and sent rolling by one of Thunder's wings, which clips him as it swoops past before ascending back into the air.

"Zap! You ok?" He calls, slightly worried. Zap gets up slowly off the ground, shaking his head and sputtering slightly. But Lincoln's worries seem to be for nothing as he stands up fully on his hindlegs. From what he can see, there's no obvious damage. "Alright, let's try Thunder Shock!" He orders.

Zap's cheeks spark warningly, before the air crackles loudly and electricity comes jumping off of the mouse. The attacks a lot faster than Lincoln expects, faster than anyone expects apparently. The shock of it allows Zap to score the first real hit of the battle on Thunder, but Lincoln's excitement over that little feat is short lived when he realizes just how little damage the attack did.

Despite Thunder's shrill cry of pain, the pokémon doesn't even look phased, easily shaking off the last jumping sparks of electricity before returning to Lisa's side.

"Woah…"

"Woo! Go Thunder! Now use Pick again!"

"Wha-? Peck! It's PECK!"

"Whatever!"

At least Thunder doesn't seem picky about Lisa getting the move names right, if the way it doesn't hesitate to dive bomb Zap is anything to go by. Thankfully Zap is faster than Thunder, if only just barely. It probably helps a lot that Lisa has latched onto one move like a leech and is refusing to let it go. Never mind the fact that she has a phone of her own to look these kinds of things up, or a brother who actually did, or that Thunder hasn't successfully hit Zap with it yet. She keeps telling Thunder to use Peck, and the overgrown bird lets her.

In the end, the battle devolves into one of attrition: Zap doing his best to dodge Thunder's Peck, just barely managing it far too often for Lincoln's own peace of mind, while scoring what essentially amounts to tick damage as Thunder swoops past or pauses to reorient itself.

It ends in a tie, Zap too tired to continue and Thunder too damaged from sustaining repeated electrical attacks.

"That was amazing!" Lisa says as she rushes him. "Man, Thunder is strong!"

"Yeah, no kidding! You really need to do some research though, peck's one of the weakest moves a flying-type like Thunder can learn."

"Oh yeah, totally!"

22"You did good for a first Pokémon battle! You deserve some rest now." Lisa says as she returns Thunder to his pokéball, before turning to Lincoln. "Dude, can I experiment on Zap's, please? His ability to generate electricity is fascinating!"

"No, Lisa. You are not experimenting on zap!"

"Darn" Lisa huffs, crossing her arms over her chest with a pout.

If she's going to say something else, it's interrupted by Sam walking up to Lincoln.

"So Lincoln, great battle, but uh… I need your help. A rattata appeared in my house and stole my necklace. Can you help me get it back?" Sam asks.

"Sure! Or… well, I'd like to help you out, but we're still grounded… maybe you can get Lisa to build you your own pokéballs! Then you could catch your own pokémon and take care of the rattata yourself!" Lincoln says, eyes shining at his idea.

Sam looks at Lincoln in confusion. "Wait! I thought Lisa didn't have enough material to make more pokeballs?" She asks, turning to Lisa.

"I only said that so the military couldn't use these pokemon as weapons like they always do in the movies." She says, tone casual as she looks at her phone.

Lola looks at her own empty pokeball in anger, still wanting to catch her own pokémon. Something cute that would wear cute clothes and would allow her to put make-up on it. But Lana doesn't want that to happen to any Pokémon. She looks at Thorn and sighs. He reminds her so much of her pet frog, Hops. He'd been her very best friend, and she knew there was no replacing him. Even if it was a pokémon.

"...So, if I throw a pokeball at a Pokémon, will I be able to use it again or not? In the games they were one use only for some reason… I thought it was because they broke when a pokémon got loose but it never really made sense to me." Sam says.

Lincoln looks at Lisa. "I never fully understood it myself, but considering one of the most recent games, I guess balancing? The in-game explanation is probably something like the pokéballs get lost, or the trainer doesn't have the time to pick them up mid-battle." Lincoln says.

"It's to make money, of course. One-use only regardless of success rate means that regardless of whether or not you catch the pokémon in question, you still have to go buy more. Supply and demand. But anyways, no, if the pokéball fails, you can always use it to try again. Just don't lose it." Lisa explains, looking back down to her phone, clearly searching for something. "Looks like a really big pokémon has been spotted swimming around in the Pacific Ocean!"

"Could be a wailord?" Sam suggests. "If I remember correctly, they're supposed to be very friendly, kind of like regular whales!"

"There's a whale pokémon now? At least it's friendly like a normal, regular whale I guess…" Luna says, rubbing the back of her head.

"To be fair, most pokemon are pretty friendly. Particularly the babies. A lot of them just prefer to be left alone, and some of them hang out in groups or herds and packs!" Lincoln says, trying to sooth Luna's worries.

Zap walks up to Lyra, starting to make funny faces to make her happy.

"Pika!" Zap says, pulling at his cheeks and sticking his tongue out.

"Ralts ralts ralts!" Lyra laughs, clearly entertained.

"Aw… that's so sweet of you to make her happy Zap. Y'know what? As a thanky you, I'll make you a rain jacket later, so you don't catch a cold." Leni says, sitting next to her child.

Zap looks up at the sky to see rain clouds gathering very quickly, roiling like it's going to storm.

"Pika-chu?"

Lisa shakes her head, seeing that the supposed "wailord" in the pictures on the news site look nothing like the image she pulls up when she actually looks up the pokémon in question.

"Guys… uh… the 'waillord'? It's not a wailord. I think it's something called a ky-kyog… uh kyogre?" Lisa says, tone cautious.

"KYOGRE!" Both Sam and lincoln exclaims at the same time, looking equal parts concerned and frightened.

"What's a Kyogre? Sounds like a one of those water toys you use in the pool when you go swimming." Luna asks, looking between the two.

"Is it a super rare pokemon?" Lola cuts in, eyes almost glittering in excitement.

Lana pets Thorn. "Maybe this Kyogre pokémon is super friendly! Like Thorn when I found him at the park!" She suggests, tone hopeful.

Lincoln and Sam look at each other, their expressions anything but reassuring.

"Uh… well…"

"Let us explain."

"Ok, so, kyogre? It's not like Thorn or Zap or even Thunder or Titan. It's a… well… it's a legendary pokémon."

"Within the universe of the game, that means it's basically a god. First appeared in Pokemon Sapphire and Ruby. It was Pokemon Sapphire's mascot, alongside the remakes, I guess. Um… in the game, there was this evil gang that wanted to use its powers to flood the whole world for some reason. In the original, they failed because they had the wrong item, but in the remakes they nearly succeeded, I think." Sam sighs, scratching at her head. "But anyways, not the most friendly of pokémon…"

"Wait… so what is a legendary pokémon exactly?"

"Like Sam said earlier. Basically a god. Or at least, god-like, I guess. In the video games there was only one of each. They have no gender, unlike a pokémon like Zap or Thunder. And if you look them all up online, their stats are all a lot higher than a normal pokemon's. You can't breed them either."

"They're not just super rare. They're unique, one of a kind. And the vast majority of them are temperamental at best. And dangerously territorial at worst."

"They can be stopped though, right?"

"Uh, well… in-game you could battle and beat them, and then catch them with a pokéball. I mean, the slogan is 'Gotta Catch 'Em All'. What's the point of having a pokémon in the game you can't catch or obtain eventually, right? But uh, in the case of a legendary pokemon? The 'stronger' the better. Like uh, if you had a regular old red and white pokéball it was liable to bust free and then attack. But if you had say, an ultra ball, there was a better chance that it'd stay in and be caught."

"But you had to weaken it a bunch first, and even than there wasn't really a guarantee you'd catch it."

"No, for that, you'd need a master ball. 100% catch rate, but there was only one-per-game. So if you wasted it on something like a magikarp, then that was it. No more master ball. Or well… 99.9% catch rate, actually. I think it can fail, but the chances are so low it's basically negligible."

"This isn't the video games though… I have no idea if we can beat it. And even if we could, Zap and the others have a long way to go experience-wise before we could even think of challenging it to a battle."

Lincoln and Sam race indoors, followed by everyone else. His mother turns on the TV with the remote, right at the same Lincoln is lunging for the power button, and the image that greets his eyes freezes him cold.

"This just in. A giant sea monster has appeared off the southern coast of California, United States Naval services has been mobilized to deal with the apparent threat. Mr. Ezekiel is on site now. Jonathan?" The woman on the TV—pretty in the way TV personalities usually are, nods, as the screen cuts away to an older man in a bright, yellow rain coat. He's sitting in what is very obviously a helicopter from the sound of the propellers beating in the background, loud enough that the man practically hast o yell himself hoarse to be heard clearly. The howling winds of the apparent storm going on just outside can't be making his job any easier.

"Thank you, Amanda. An hour ago, reports came flooding in of another, strange portal opening up just a few meters out, and dumping what could only be described as a large blue boulder into the ocean waters. Eye witnesses were unclear of whether or not it was yet another pokemon at first, but the weather, once sunny and clear, has now turned incredibly hostile!"

The camera pans then, down below to the churning waters where what feels like the entire bulk of the US naval forces sits, resting precariously in the rocking waves. There, far too obvious and large to be anything other than the pokemon Lisa had found out about on the news, sits the Kyogre. And Lisa is right. Despite how much he prays for it to be otherwise, that is no wailord.

It's submerged, and its shadow is massive. But it's too small to be a wailord, and too distinct a shape to be anything other than the legendary pokemon that was the version mascot for Pokemon Sapphire.

Kyogre, veritable god of the seas and one of the most canonically ornery pokemon to ever be created by the company that owns the franchise, sits in the waters just off the coast of a heavy populated city. He's watching it through a camera, through a lens and miles and miles of distance, but there's no shaking the near existential dread he feels at seeing just the shadow of something that powerful.

"Oh no…"

"We are join by Captain Seigfried William, who leads the operation to fell this great beast. Captain William?"

"Thank you kindly, Mr. Ezekiel. Evacuations for the surrounding areas and nearby cities is well under way, as we mobilize ships to take down this apparent threat. And we will defeat it. Our scientists and researchers have confirmed that this… monster, is in fact one of the pokemon that have been appearing from the portals that have been opening across our fair country. But the people should not be afraid. We have the situation completely under our control."

"They can't be serious." Sam says, tone filled with disbelief. Lincoln doesn't know what to say or do. There are no guns in the video games, no war ships or anything damaging like that. There's pokemon, and who knows, maybe guns do work on pokemon. They're animals, after all. They breathe, eat, sleep just like humans. But Kyogre isn't a normal pokemon. It's tantamount to a god at best, is a god at worst. Something tells Lincoln this can only end poorly.

On the TV, someone must give the order for the ships to fire. The ocean lights up in a brilliant show of fire and smoke. The water's churning even more as the explosives detonate into the back of the beast. They don't need the news reporter to tell them that every single shot hit their mark. People are celebrating.

But the storm doesn't let up.

If anything, it gets worse.

What was a torrential downpour now looks more like the ocean is falling from the sky, the wind screaming now as they blow faster, rocking the helicopter dangerously and forcing them to flee back to land before they crash.

Lincoln knows they've made a mistake. He wonders if they realize they've made a mistake. He doubts they even scratched the great beast. If not, then the only thing they've managed to do is p*** it off.

Kyogre surfaces, all sleek blue skin and red lines and a roar that makes him want to crawl up a wall and hide or run, and the waters rise with it. In an instant, barely longer than the time it takes to blink your eyes, the ships, the jets, everything is gone. Kyogre sinking back under the waters as if it hasn't just wiped out an entire fleet's worth of ships like Lincoln swatting a fly out of the air, leaving little more than ruined bits of twisted, torn metal floating in the waves.

Whatever the news reporters say about the rampant destruction is lost in a field of white noise. Lincoln can only stare at the frozen image of the ocean where Kyogre had initially surfaced; smoke billowing from still burning fires in surging waters and the kind of weather you'd normally only see in over-the-top, end-of-the-world movies. The kind where Mother Nature slams the reset button for humanity as a whole by summoning some ridiculous tsunami.

"Wh-What? Why?" Leni questions from just behind Lincoln, Lyra held close to her chest with one hand covering the dual-type's "eyes". Lincoln guesses that Leni was trying to shelter her child from the violence, but he's not sure if it was strictly necessary. "Why did they do that?! It hadn't even done anything to them yet?!"

"Because despite the Pokemon franchise's world-wide popularity, not everyone knows what a pokemon is." Their mother pipes up from where she's sitting on the sofa. Her voice is steady and even, casual like she's talking about the weather instead of the horror show they just witnessed on national television. "Or what they might look like. And Kyogre is big, and scary looking and can apparently cause huge, dangerous storms just by existing. Which puts a lot of innocent, helpless people in danger. So they tried to do their jobs. They tried to protect us by eliminating a dangerous threat."

"Yeah, and they failed. Spectacularly." Sam cuts in, a certain bite to her tone that Lincoln hasn't heard before.

"The only thing they really managed to do was p*** it off and put everyone in even more danger."

As if to emphasize that point, the news reporter cuts in, telling them about the expansion of the evacuation from just a handful of counties and cities to the entire western coast. The whole area now deemed a forbidden zone until they can figure out a way to deal with Kyogre.