Being the first region to make use of Pokémon for travel, the skies of Kanto were always busy. Shipments from Vermillion City to Lavender Town, special orders from Celadon City to Pewter City or maybe just a homesick student living in the big Saffron City wanting to check back with his parents in Pallet Town. One could draw a straight line between any two human settlements and be sure that at least one Pokémon was visible to the people on the ground at all times.
The routes had become extremely efficient. But this had left the areas in between largely forgotten, and for good reason. South of Celadon, west of Vermillion one might find on a map something marked down as "plains", a single word functioning as a perfect description. It was plain. Not even interesting for the most intrepid of explorers since there was absolutely nothing there but emptiness and disappointment. And the skies were no exception.
Which is why today was different. A bird carrying two passengers was traveling at high speeds while surveying the area. The first passenger had just finished the other a story to pass the time, which had been a trying task as the strong winds drowned out any manner of speech which didn't leave the speaker with a sore throat.
"… And THEN you sucker punched him!?" Lucario yelled, a satisfied grin forming on his face.
"For the last time, no!" Zerobi responded trying to shout down the wind blowing in her face, "I've never met Jirachi before, why would I even consider attacking him!?"
"Why don't you ask him!?" Lucario shouted back, bashing his chest where the scar left by the little legendary still remained. Or so he assumed, his body had accumulated a lot of scars over the past few years, even before he wrested control of it from Cyon.
"He probably doesn't even remember, he's like three years old!" Zerobi replied. Jirachi seemed like more of a goof than a creature of malice to her, and wondered how on earth Lucario ended up fighting him in the first place.
"Oh, I'll make him remember!" Lucario yelled as he lifted his arms high, "I'm ready this time, that little shit's going down!"
He wobbled a little as the bird beneath him suddenly swayed a little to the side and he almost lost balance, leaning forward and grabbing a tight hold of the avian once more.
"Lucario!" Zerobi yelled with a voice that sounded strangely serious, "You are not going to coldcock a toddler!"
Lucario snickered, wondering if Zerobi realized the word she had used. He couldn't help himself, words like "cold" were funny when said by an Ice-type.
"Guess who!"
Zerobi was startled by the sudden voice and reacted with pure instinct by jumping into the air, which, considering she was already airborne and also sitting down merely resulted in her falling off to the side. In a panic Lucario reached out to grab her as the sudden shift in weight disoriented their ride, but before Zerobi could finish her scream two long vines of ivy snapped around her stomach and halted her descent. She didn't stop screaming.
"… Who?" Lucario asked with a belated sigh as he looked over the legendary Celebi, enormous eyes shot wide open in surprise as she flew alongside the bird, speechless as she slowly reeled in her sister.
"Th-The Grim Reaper!" Zerobi spat while trying to keep her internal organs from jumping out of her throat in surprise, "Don't…! Ever…! You scared the living shit out me!"
"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Celebi apologized incessantly, "I could have sworn Lucario would have sensed me and told you I was coming!"
The vines dragged Zerobi up and helped her back on the bird, and Lucario suddenly felt four eyes glaring on the back of his head.
"We were busy with a really important conversation," Lucario explained with a shrug.
"No we weren't!" Zerobi exclaimed with agitation, before sighing and looked at Celebi who was now flying right beside them, "Sis, I'm… I'm glad you're here!"
Celebi's expression relaxed as she smiled, and then moved in closer. Zerobi attempted to respond by extending her arms, but didn't want to risk falling again and simply received the hug. They hadn't been apart for very long, yet still they felt like they had gone through hell and back and could use some emotional support. Lucario decided to keep his mouth shut, but the affectionate moment was ruined anyway by a sudden gagging noise coming from somewhere.
"Hrm, sorry. Bug," the bird said, the tone of his voice making it clear he wasn't feeling remorseful at all. Still keeping quiet, Lucario recalled that just like genuine animals, bugs were quite rare these days. Unless you count the kind that's four feet tall and can punch like hell.
"Let me take care of the wind," Celebi said inaudibly as she let go of Zerobi and clapped her hands together, as a dim white bubble surrounded the three Pokémon while conveniently leaving out the bird's head. As the gas-like hazed passed by his ears, Lucario felt the wind's constant whoosh dampen and be replaced by his own breathing.
"Nice," Zerobi said with regular speaking volume as she tried blinking a little, her vision having gotten a little blurry from her face being subjected to an endless storm, "Still wouldn't mind a quick break on the ground if that's alright with you two."
"Yeah… No," Lucario quickly jumped in, having waited for an opportunity to talk without their flying steed hearing more than necessary, "Celebi… You DO sense that, right?"
"Yes. That is why I sped up," Celebi replied before looking over at Zerobi, who seemed a little disappointed but intrigued nonetheless, "We're sensing a very powerful aura just ahead. We cannot see it though, so it must still be underground."
"Like brown in your pants powerful," Lucario clarified while letting go of the bird with one hand to better demonstrate, "How could anyone possibly miss it? Every psychic in Kanto must be needing a change of underwear by now!"
Zerobi and Celebi spent a few seconds contemplating the meaning of his words, then immediately regretted it.
"I-It's intense, but the radius is limited," Celebi clarified as she composed herself, "That's why we didn't sense it before, he was too deep underground."
"So this means you two can track him now?" Zerobi asked, Celebi nodding as Lucario extended his arm and gave what qualifies as a thumb's up when you only have three fingers, "Mission complete, then! Signal the legendaries!"
"Done," Celebi said bluntly, noticing her sister's confusion, "We… Don't really have a signal. I just told Jirachi to go tell them to come find me."
Feeling her bravado slip away, Zerobi instead became worried by the mention of Jirachi's name. She looked over at Lucario, expecting a mad snarl of some kind, but instead he had an aloof expression of mild excitement.
"The whole gang's coming, huh?" Lucario spoke up as he leaned back a little, nearly touching the cold gem on Zerobi's forehead, "Zapdos, Molestres, that pink thing and… Lugia…"
His voice sounded a little less excited as the list went on. He'd completely forgotten that Lugia was going to have a piece of his ass.
"And Ho-Oh, Articuno, Xerneas, Yveltal, Jirachi, Azelf, Uxie and whoever else manages to show up," Celebi filled in, figuring 'that pink thing' was referring to Mesprit, "It should be quite a sight."
Lucario feigned a serene smile as Celebi close her eyes in acceptance, both of them keeping quiet about the one legendary obviously missing from the party. And it wasn't Mewtwo.
"Mistress Celebi," the bird suddenly said, "So, uh, should I land?"
The three of them looked down to see the bird's head having twisted around and entered the noise-reduction bubble. Apparently his hearing was as good as his flying abilities, and hopefully comparable to his aptitude at not blabbering secrets.
"Seven more minutes in this direction," Celebi said as she pointed forward and a little to the left.
After a bit of chatting about trivial stuff they set down, Zerobi quickly dismounting as Lucario took his time and Celebi merely hovered closer to the ground. Aside from the menacing aura this area was wholly unremarkable, no trees, no stones, just grass and some flowers.
In fact, there were so few notable things that the other areas in the far off distance are what caught the eye. Being at the crossroads of Noman's Land (formerly known as Celadon City) and Saffron City, both metropolis were visible thanks to their perchance for giving their buildings a vertical tendency rather than horizontal. If one squinted really hard it was even possible to make out the lighthouse close to Vermillion City.
"I can't even tell where he's heading," Lucario admitted as he focused on the aura so immense that it appeared to cover the very earth they were standing on, "Hope they get here before he gets to one of those cities."
"What are the odds?" Zerobi snickered as she put her head to the ground, clearly hearing something deep down, "Does he have a map? For the… Dirt?"
"Maybe he can sense auras?" Celebi suggested as Lucario looked at her with terror.
"You don't know?" Lucario asked quickly, feeling less certain about the whole thing, "Wait, can he sense us right now!?"
"How would I know the details about a legendary that went underground centuries before I was born?" Celebi responded a little less calmly than before, "What does it matter if he can sense us?"
Lucario wanted to respond, but was interrupted by a not-very-subtle twitch coming from the Dark-type lying on the ground in front of them. Zerobi's face had turned darker than usual.
"I… Think we're about to find out," she whispered pessimistically, suddenly hearing a lot more activity underground. Something like an army of Rhyhorn fighting a battalion of Gravelers.
"Lower your aura!" Celebi suddenly shouted as she stared at Lucario, who instantly made his presence disappear. Although already dwarfed by the beast's gigantic aura, all three of them were now invisible to the mind's eye. If not for one thing.
"Your pants!" Celebi continued in panic as she felt her own presence exuding from the blue garment, "Get rid of them!"
"What!?" Lucario replied, faintly recalling how his pants had been made a beacon to attract Mew once so long ago, "It can't still… It's been years!"
"Guys?" Zerobi whispered, having a little trouble following their conversation. The Gravelers and Rhyhorn sounded like they had evolved into Golems and Rhydons.
"I keep telling you, it never went away!" Celebi shouted back with desperation, "You can't feel it!? Destroy them!"
"Hell no!" Lucario responded harshly and took a step back from the perverted legendary, "Where am I going to find a change of clothes out here!?"
"He's coming," Zerobi said as the rock-types seemingly evolved yet another stage and all used Fissure in the direction her eardrums.
"Priorities, Lucario!" Celebi yelled while trying to think of a way to burn his clothes off without actually harming him, "We have more important things to-"
"HE'S COMING!" Zerobi screamed with all her might, finally shutting the two others up. There was no need to however, because a faint trembling turned into a mighty rumble only a few seconds later.
Celebi
The creature cut its way to the surface like it was swimming. Salvation. Hope. After centuries, finally within its reach. Sedimentation showered over it as but a single thought ran through its mind.
Celebi Celebi Celebi Celebi Celebi Celebi Celebi Celebi Celebi
The earth quaked, but not because of any tectonic plates. The crust of the earth cracked open and the soil burst into a cloud of dust and dirt, as if someone had planted detonations all over the area. A cacophony of stone grinding against stone filled their ears as they tried to get away, but the tumult and confusion made it impossible to determine the source of this disaster.
That is, until they saw Groudon. A hot, yellow glow revealed his location through the grey mist, attached to a warm red color which made up about half of his body. The other half bore a somewhat faded black coloration, like that of a worn-out tire, and it looked twice as tough. He was truly enormous, dwarfing Rayquaza and easily being on par with Lugia. Zerobi stuck both her claws into the soil in an attempt to keep steady, but the vibrations ran through her like she was a reverse lightning rod and her lithe body fell over. As he cleared the filth from his eyelids, Lucario couldn't help but wonder why legendaries only came in two sizes - Small as a kitten or big as a mountain. He also noticed that the bulky monster was still coming out of the ground, which gave him an idea.
"He's stuck! In the ground!" he shouted over the grinding stones, "This is our chance, let's beat him senseless!"
"Wait!" Celebi immediately shouted back while covering her face, her big eyes soaking up the whirling dust like a big blue sponge. She wanted to elaborate, but a lot of what used to be the ground ended up right on her tongue which made her shiver in disgust.
That's when Groudon suddenly split in half.
His giant body broke apart in a horizontal line as Lucario's eyes shot wide open, wondering what the hell had just happened. Wanting to congratulate Zerobi on her initiative, he instead saw that the Dark-type was still just trying to get up, cursing audibly in a manner which he had heard a few times before. A guttural rumble sounded as Lucario squinted through the filthy fog and saw something protruding all over Groudon's freshly-made wound.
Teeth.
"A mouth?!" Lucario exclaimed in confusion. In fact, there was no blood or anything gushing out from the giant, him 'splitting apart' had just been him opening his big mouth which appeared to make up 90% of his bodymass.
Groudon examined the area, his dazed mind unfamiliar with the sunlight and air. But he only sought one thing. There, right in front of him, the small verdant legendary he had known so far in the past. His weakness. His salvation.
Celebi finally managed to open her eyes, forming an invisible barrier over her face to prevent further intrusion by leaping dirt. There she saw him, a legend only spoken of in stories. However, what she saw was beyond anything she could possibly have imagined. Groudon was staring at her, for a moment experiencing what might resemble sanity in the same way a dying man in the desert might mistake sand for water. Yet still, he was able to formulate one last comprehensive thought as his being slipped back into darkness.
SLAY ME!
"RUN!" Celebi yelled as loudly as she could as she turned to flee, "IT'S ONLY HIS HEAD!"
The ground shook even harder now as Groudon began to struggle more intensely. To the three of them, it felt as if the world was splitting apart. Every passing second was like a hundred explosions as gigantic limbs tore through the crust like snow. Debris ranging between the size of boulders or small islands cascaded from the monster's point of entry, Lucario covering his ears in an almost certainly futile attempt to preserve his hearing. He knew he had to get away, but the chaos was overtaking each and every sense, with the ground breaking apart all around him he wasn't even sure which way was which anymore.
Something struck him. Soft, but fiercely, throwing him far back into the air. Bracing himself from the inevitable reunion with the soil, his fall was a comparably gentle one at a bed of large flowers. Disoriented he quickly tried to stand up, only to see Zerobi flying straight at him. Instinctively he tried to catch her, but remembering that her claws were sharp enough to rip his flesh apart even when they weren't whirling towards him at the speed of a very stressed-out biker he stepped aside and let the flowers do their job.
"What the… Hell…" Zerobi exclaimed in confusion, though oddly enough not referring to her airtime nor the conspicuous growth. Her eyesight was very good and she had seen what they were up against. Celebi was thinking along the same lines as she came up in front of them, making sure they had landed safely after her improvised transportation service. Hesitantly she turned around, her back prickling from the immeasurably intense aura basking it.
As the clouds parted, none of the three Pokémon even noticed the giant crevice with red liquid lava seeping out of it. It was a minor detail before the mountain of a monster before them. Groudon stood on four legs, each the size of a dozen Onix. Its claws, disproportionate like Zerobi's, were the size of skyscrapers. The immensity of the legendary made any comparisons to any other living creature as pointless as comparing mammals to microbes. His red shell and grey underbelly appeared discolored, carrying a blue tint from being so high up. Finally there was the head, or rather the chin of which, because from where they were standing nothing else was visible despite the giant legendary being on all fours.
"How big is that thing!?" Lucario shouted, feeling his neck stiffen from leaning his head back so much.
"Impossible… Impossible!" Celebi burst out in utter disbelief, "What kind of skeleton could support such mass!?"
"Hey, I can't see that bird!" Zero yelled with desperation as she surveyed the otherwise empty plains, "That bastard ran away!"
"Its veins must be made out of steel!" Celebi continued as all notions of reason and logic leaked out of her mind, "A body temperature of a million degrees!"
"Best idea I've heard all day!" Lucario shouted to Zerobi they both made a move to dash at maximum speed, when Lucario suddenly realized Celebi was still frozen in mid-air, gazing helplessly at the spectacle in front of her.
"How could it even move… The neural impulses must take several minutes to… To…" she stammered, her mouth dry as a leaf. Groudon turned his head from side to side, about as quickly as a bridge rotates. However, it eventually decided on a spot and looked far off into the distance with those pitch-black eyes.
"Celebi!" Lucario said sharply while giving the back of her onion-like head a quick slap, "We could track this thing from orbit, let's run already!"
"No… NononoNONONO LOOK OUT!" Celebi suddenly screamed as she flew straight back in fear, accidentally ramming her backside into Lucario's chest. Already on the move, Lucario wasn't steadfast enough and fell over together with the small legendary. Both of them scrambled to get back up, but found themselves paralyzed as a force of a million chills ran through their bodies.
Zerobi stopped and looked back, wondering what they were lying around for. Her answer came abruptly as Groudon's neck suddenly extended and he once more opened his mouth, making her instinctively cover her ears with her arms. But what came out of that enormous mouth was no roar.
A ball of white light amassed between Groudon's teeth, exploding into a vertical pillar of pure, raw destruction. Zerobi was instantly blinded as she looked away, thankful that the beam wasn't aimed anywhere near where they were. The muffled sounds reaching her eardrums told her of a huge blast far away, but the spots dancing before her eyes suggested waiting at least ten more seconds before looking back to see what had happened.
Being the first to properly recover, Celebi ignored the banging pain in her head and quickly soared high, trying to determine the site of impact. Please be a mountain, she thought. Please.
Lucario's heart was pounding like crazy. Had he still been human he knew he would've broken out into a cold sweat, a feeling which instead manifested itself into a tight knot in his stomach and prickly sensation reaching down to his toes. Still covering his ears, he quickly made it to his feet and by mere coincidence was first greeted by the sight of smoke rising from far away. At its base was something he recognized all too well.
"S-Saffron!?" Lucario exclaimed in disbelief, trying to catch his breath. Normally visible at the edge of the horizon nearly 5 km away, only one of Saffron City's proud buildings still existed. The rest was black rubble. And black smoke. And as Celebi was able to see using her enhanced vision, many black charred corpses. She fell down to the ground with her mouth wide open, this level of destruction was plain in view no matter how far up she went.
"It's… Gone," she uttered breathlessly, looking at Lucario with an expression caught between sorrow and fear, "All gone."
He looked back at her and gritted his teeth in an attempt to steady his breathing. His heart was starting to hurt from pounding so hard, simply being in the vicinity of that beam was enough to nearly send him into cardiac arrest. The people and Pokémon in Saffron City had been wiped out in an instant. This was the power of a true legendary. Groudon's neck settled back into its regular position, and from the side Lucario could make out the giant's expression. It was one of implacability. It was unmoved and, if anything, signified boredom. He had just ended an innumerable amount of lives and didn't care, probably didn't even notice.
A rare emotion coursed through Lucario – Genuine fear. This was no Torana or Garchomp, an opponent you could reasonably fight. It was a force of nature, like a walking earthquake that breathed tornadoes and spat weapons of mass destruction. No amount of determination could match up to a creature that could explode half a province at a moment's notice. Any second Groudon could just turn its head, open its mouth and he would die. Zerobi would die. Celebi would die. What the hell were they doing just standing around!?
"C'mon!" Lucario shouted with determination, grabbing a hold of Celebi's arm and making a run for it.
"No!" Celebi insisted as she slipped out of his grip, "Do you have any idea how many will die if he does that again!? Hundreds of thousands! We have to stop it!"
"Stop it!?" Lucario repeated indignantly while clenching his fists, "We're not even insects compared to that thing! We couldn't stop it with an army!"
"Yes we could!" Celebi continued and quickly thought up a plan, "We just have to… Distract him! Until the other legendaries arrive!"
"If it breathes in our direction we're going to die!" Lucario argued and instinctively clutched his chest, "Like Deoxys, it's way out of our league!"
"You're right, let's sit around and wait for Mew to come fix everything!" Celebi yelled back. Lucario stopped, clutching his chest even harder. Why was he doing that? He quietly let go as he emptied out both lungs in a single exhale, trying to scrape up whatever confidence remained to properly analyze the situation.
Celebi was staring at him with a mixture of frustration and fear. Behind her, he found it difficult to ignore Groudon who had started walking forward at a ridiculously slow pace. Behind himself he heard a set of familiar footsteps, meaning that Zerobi was approaching. As Lucario felt himself calm down, reason returned to his mind and he gave Celebi a pitiful look.
"What could I even do to it?" he mumbled dejected with a shrug, "Stub its toe with a tackle?"
"We could gouge out his eyes," Zerobi suggested as Celebi was about to answer. The small legendary stopped herself and looked at her sister, Lucario doing the same. She felt awkward.
"Well I mean, he can't do much if he can't see," Zerobi furthered her explanation, "At his size my claws would be like tiny needles. That should suck."
"Sis! That's it!" Celebi exclaimed cheerfully despite the dire situation and clasped her hands around Zerobi's head, "We'll distract him while you stab out his eyes!"
"There are those words again, 'we' and 'distract'," Lucario grumbled, never taking his sight off the giant who seemed idle, most likely recovering from that immense beam from earlier, "Like seriously, how would I make him notice me?"
"… Are you not always boasting of how your aura penetrates any defense?" Celebi replied after a moment of thinking, "His thick scales will not make a difference!"
"Great, we only need about five million aura spheres for him to MAYBE give a fuck!" Lucario shouted half-angry and half-determined to strike while Groudon was still somewhat immobilized, "Whatever, let's just go. I'll think of something, do a jig or some shit."
Celebi nodded firmly before flying off, Lucario and Zerobi running closely behind her. Groudon's head loomed ahead, staring off at the distance and only grew larger as they drew closer.
"Sis, keep going! Lucario, follow me!" Celebi commanded as she sped up and flew to the right, closer to the front of Groudon. His pool-sized right eye instantly locked on to her verdant form, sparing her the need to attack.
Celebi
She slowed down as the eye continued to follow her. Against her better judgment she lowered her guard and stared back at the giant, if he wanted to blast her into smithereens she probably couldn't do much to stop it. However, as the moments passed, this outcome seemed more and more unlikely. Was he still too exhausted from his use of Hyper Beam? Or was there another reason?
Celebi
She stopped. Although terrifying in appearance, Groudon's eye seemed to lack all sort of malicious intent. These things can be hard to tell when dealing with monsters, but all the signs were there. The eyes were stuck on the side of Groudon's head, signifying him as a prey rather than predator. Celebi reminded herself of the old story she had been told by Lugia. Somewhere behind that hard carapace was a hero who had been forced into madness by the ever-elusive Darkrai. Was there a chance to cure him? Could they maybe settle this peacefully? Would it be worth the risk?
Celebi
"BOOYA!" Zerobi shouted and leaped into the air, closing her eyes and mouth as she spiraled straight towards Groudon's cornea, claws outstretched. There was a feeling like that of grabbing a handful of Ditto as she pierced straight into Groudon's eye, feeling a stream of what was most certainly not blood gushing over her upper body. In fact, her lower half felt surprisingly dry as she realized she had come to a stop.
A wet, squishy feeling covering her head suggested that opening her eyes and mouth was most likely not a good idea, but her lungs demanded she go back 5 seconds and not waste all her air on a useless battle cry. Frantically flailing her legs around, she realized that she had gotten stuck in what appeared to be the single most resilient anterior chamber on the planet. Even worse, there was an almost crushing sensation as the blob suddenly pressed at her from all side, keeping her arms pinned together and threatening to force the air out of her even faster. It was repairing the wound.
Something made its way into her ears and other orifices as she exhaled the coldest wind she could possibly muster up given the situation, successfully hardening the blob covering her face. She felt her head grow heavier as the block of ice grew larger and threatened to pull her further into this hell, but the naturally solid and sharp consistency of her new mask allowed her to easily dig a hole through the viscous liquid surrounding her. Leaning her head forward, she exhaled once more as a large icicle formed out of her mask and pierced through the corona, this time from the inside. With more room to move her moderately sharp feet around, she cut up the outside of her prison until the hole was big enough for her to slip out, inhaling sharply and falling helpless to the ground. Determining which way was down by the wind rushing past her battered body, she spun around and successfully landed on her feet, but instantly fell to her knees coughing.
"Zerobi!" Lucario shouted as he ran over, momentarily distracted by a loud crash from above. Apparently Groudon had blinked. Zerobi was covered in something extremely funky and kept her eyes closed, but grumbled a sort of response to show she was still alive. He picked her up and ran away from Groudon, but didn't make it very far as the slime made him constantly lose his grip.
"Sis! What happened!? Did it work!?" Celebi flew after them with a terrified expression. Lucario reluctantly looked up at Groudon, noticing there wasn't even a scratch left behind on his ocular.
"Hell no! It felt like jabbing a Reuniclus!" Zerobi hacked and spurted, "Every cut I made closed up in seconds, I think he's carrying Leftovers or something!"
Lucario seemed confused as Celebi hastily considered their options. If Groudon was regenerating damage that quickly, their only chance would be to finish him off with unimaginable force. Had she remained content with being the world's best gardener for the rest of her life, their only choice at this point would have been to infect Groudon with a deadly disease and wait maybe a month or so for it to spread throughout his enormous body.
But someone had shown her another way. A scene of dark thunderclouds, blue sparkling light and a brush with death had led her on a different path from that of her mother, and her mother's mother. In secret she had trained, mustering up an ability far beyond that of any other legendary. A dark power used by her and Zerobi's father, normally forbidden to those of her kind. A force of destruction capable of ripping the very planet asunder.
"Alright, so the eyes didn't work," Lucario struggled to come up with an idea, "What about his… Other weak point?"
"He doesn't have one," Zerobi muttered as she wiped her face clean of gunk, "I checked."
"… Well, no wonder's he's so pissed," Lucario sighed as Celebi moved down to the ground in front of them.
"Please distract him just a little longer!" Celebi said earnestly with an expression of determination, "I will use Nasty Plot and see what I can do!"