Chapter 2: Worldbuilding

When the lake trio descended to the rocky surface of the planet, they realized it wasn't yet a suitable place to rest. The ground was barren, the sky was red, and the few pools of water that did exist on the planet were caustic and noxious-smelling. Their senses detected no other life on this world.

So they decided to create some of their own.

Using the power of the plates they had brought with them, particularly the ones now known as Mind Plates, they created a small pink being with an extraordinary power: It could rearrange its own molecular structure, it's own DNA, and transform into whatever living being it desired to be. Once the creature was fully formed, it opened its pale blue eyes, and said its first word.

"Mew."

And so the Pokémon which brought life to this planet named itself.

After letting Mew get its bearings, moving around and playing with its creators, they gave the new species explicit instructions on what to do. For you see, Mew was not just capable of rearranging its whole form – it could alter and rearrange individual cells in its body as well. And so Mew went on a journey across the entire planet, seeding the caustic pools of water with its cells.

These cells were specifically altered by Mew to be sturdy and survive in the cesspools, but a few were altered by the power of one of the plates – specifically, the one known in modern times as the Meadow Plate. In those particular cells, the power materialized in the form of a chemical – a compound known as chlorophyll. The cells became the first algae, and they started absorbing light from the planet's sun to use as food. In the process, they left one vital byproduct:

Oxygen.

This gas, this elixir that would be vital to life in the years to come, filtered out of the acidic pools and started leaking into the atmosphere. It took a few million years, but soon the air was filled with this simple gas.

And the skies were finally blue.

But the Trio Of Spirit wanted more. They knew that for life to thrive, they needed more water – and high enough terrain to form continents.

So they beseeched two of their draconic siblings for help, and they answered.

Dialga used the power of the Earth Plates on minerals in the ground to create a massive, crimson, reptilian behemoth, with thick armor plates and glowing blue ridges on its body. Palkia, in turn, used the Splash Plates on chemicals in the water to create a whale-like leviathan, with glowing red markings adoring its skin. These Pokémon were named Groudon and Kyogre by humanity billions of years later. For now, they just had a job to do.

Kyogre created rainclouds out of thin air, and they began to pour onto the surface of the planet, turning the pools of water into oceans. Groudon, meanwhile, began to form the continents, using its power to push them out up from the seas, and using its ability to intensify the sun's rays to dry the new landmasses out.

It was virtually no time at all before the world started looking like the ocean-and continent mixture it is today, and for a while things seemed to be looking good.

But then Groudron noticed that Kyogre had a far vaster kingdom than it did.

It confronted its fellow world-shaper, and they began to argue over which was better - land or sea. It wasn't long before it escalated into a full-on brawl.

The resulting conflict was devastating. As the two clashed, continents were formed and submerged, and oceans expanded then dried up due to the raging power of the legendary Pokémon. The Trio Of Spirit, Dialga, Palkia, and even little Mew tried to stop them, both verbally and physically. But nothing worked. The fighting raged on, earthquakes and tsunamis and all. Life on earth, as primitive and hardy as it was, was in dire danger.

So the other primordial Legends reluctantly called on their last resort: Giratina.

Fortunately, Giratina had matured somewhat by then and decided to help his siblings out. He used the Draco Plates, the Sky plates, and gases in the ozone layer of the planet to create a Pokémon that would tame the fighting duo – the Pokémon we now know as Rayquaza, master of the skies.

Rayquaza descended to his fighting fellows and asked them what was wrong. When Groudron complained about Kyogre having more space on the planet than he did, Rayquaza came up with a quick solution.

He explained to Groudon that since water was more necessary for life than land was, it made sense that Kyogre would get more territory than Groudon did. However, he also reminded Kyogre to not be stuck-up about that fact that it had the larger domain. He reprimanded them both for ruining each other's good work, especially when they had worked together so well before the argument.

Whether Giratina made Rayquaza to be a convincing negotiator, or if he was just that way by nature, no one knows. Either way, to the surprise of the other legends, its speech to the angry duo worked. Groudron and Kyogre agreed to stop the argument and fix what they had broken.

The first two put the continents and oceans back in their proper places, while Rayquaza gave his contribution: thickening the atmosphere of the planet. After that, the exhausted Ground-type and Water-type dug themselves into the planet's crust and fell asleep, remaining so for the next few billion years.

Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf were tired too, and they finally found a place to rest – three lakes on a small continent. In the eons to come they would move from lake to lake as the ones they resided in dried up, but they rarely stayed awake for long. Dialga, Palkia and Giratina also retreated to their home dimensions. Only two conscious Pokémon remained on the planet: Mew and Rayquaza.

But it wouldn't be that way for long.

First, the Spirit Trio had scattered the Plates throughout the planet, just like they had done on so many others. One Flame Plate fell into a volcano, and its increased power in its natural element took the form of the gender-bending Heatran. This Pokémon would influence volcanic activity for ages to come, changing the course of history many a time.

Second, the primitive, single-celled lifeforms survived after the conflict between Groudon and Kyogre, and they thrived in this new, ocean-rich world. After about a billion years, they had evolved into the first, simple multicelular organisms.

They were destined to be the first nonlegendary Pokémon.