The black clouds of burning jet fuel surged forth from the gouge in the side of Prime Minister Tajiri's airplane as the vehicle hurtled toward downtown Saffron City. Oxygen mask clasped tightly to his face, he tapped a small button hidden in the side of his wristwatch, sending a signal to a satellite passing far overhead.
That signal was his final goodbye, a message to his family, his friends and his nation. This was it. There was no way out.
The jet rocked violently to the side, sending the corpses of two of the flight attendants pinballing down the aisle, their heads and torsos bouncing like stones on a lake's surface against the interior of the fuselage. 100 feet ahead, through the acrid smoke, the Prime Minister could almost make out the unconscious silhouettes of his two pilots.
Though oxygen flowed freely into his mask, Tajiri could not draw a breath.
Surrounding the plane from the top and sides flew the horrific beasts of legend, awakened to doom the world; riding upon each, their terrible masters, the Vicious Three.
The beast outside Tajiri's window resembled the crackling of lightning across the sky and indeed, moved just as fast; on the other side, it was hard to tell where the flames of the crashing plane ended and the wings of a fiery albatross began. And capping the plane like an icy crown flew the most elegant of the horrors, its slender blue tail stretching behind like a frozen contrail.
"Gods, spare the people," the prime minister muttered, seemingly to no one. Though the plot to crash the Prime Minister's jet into the Silph Tower had been derailed, it would crash nonetheless - and those horrible demons and their deific mounts would do everything in their power to make sure many would die.
But that was merely the beginning. Tajiri knew their plans - an age of ice, of lightning, of fire.
Dark storm clouds seemed to form instantaneously as tempests of astonishing magnitude battered the tattered fuselage.
All hope was lost.
Suddenly, a crackle in Tajiri's earpiece.
"Mr. Prime Minister, do you read?"
His resignation to fate faltered as he recognized the voice on the other end.
It couldn't possibly be. He watched them die.
But when a brilliant beam of pure, crackling power surged past the window, he knew it was true.
"Forget about me - save the city!" Tajiri roared into his earpiece. "That is an order, Dragontamer!"
Far behind the airplane and its trio of captors, three spots appeared on the horizon. It was not long before they bore down on their enemies.
Three of the world's most powerful Pokémon had arrived - the Three Dragons. And riding atop the largest in the center stood the most powerful trainer in the world. The Dragontamer.
"Have you already forgotten, Mr. Prime Minister?" the Dragontamer replied coolly. "We don't take orders from you anymore."
The two Dragonites flanking the Dragontamer opened their howling maws as glowing spheres of power began to grow before them.
"It's now or never!" the Dragontamer rallied. "Elites - Engage!"
Crowds gathered on the beaches southwest of Saffron began a panicked exodus as the very ground around them seemed to crack and shift, the ocean retreating as if to warn of an approaching tsunami. Massive boulders ripped from the earth as if gripped in the hands of some incredible giant, forming a snakelike barrier across the shore; indeed, the serpentine form of the palisade was no accident. Standing atop the largest of the boulders, on a raised stone spire, stood the Wall, a musclebound man with absolute control of the beasts of the earth, including the impossibly large Onix now lying across the shoreline.
As if queued to act upon the construction of the stone barricade, a small dot skipping across the ocean's surface shot forth like a torpedo; a woman's fiery red hair streaked through the air behind her as she surfed atop her companion Lapras. As the creature launched off the ocean's waves, the Ice Queen knelt down and closed her eyes. The briny spray of the ocean filled her senses as she embraced the surf, the waves growing higher and higher until the sea itself began to rise. Higher, higher, and higher still, the Lapras rode the growing tsunami, until it threatened to overtake the crashing plane.
The flaming albatross of Victory Road, Moltres, barked in shock as Lapras burst forth from the titanic wave and sprayed a beam of intense cold across its burning beak; its rider dug his heels into the bird's fiery back and commanded it to unleash its Fire Blast. Without hesitation, a massive star of flames shot back at Lapras. The plesiosauroid beast submerged itself in the ocean swell as it began to break, disappearing within an explosion of steam.
As Lapras and Moltres dueled, the Phantom of the Power Plant Zapdos arced and crackled across the sky, leaping from storm cloud to storm cloud at the speed of lightning. Its rider grinned, knowing that nothing on the planet could outspeed the duo.
Zapdos called on the power of the skies, seemingly ripping the air apart with its thunderous attacks. The bird shrieked and dove into the darkest cloud it could find, a fortress from which to launch its tempestuous artillery. As the sky darkened around Zapdos and his rider, both felt a chill run down their spines. The rider felt the breath leave his body as a gnarled, wild whisper entered his ears.
"The only thing as fast as the speed of light, dearie," the Madama Banshee hissed, "is the speed of darkness."
Suddenly, they were trapped in a bubble of shadow - a zone of total sensory deprivation. No sights, no sounds, except the howling laughter of the Banshee and her devilish companions.
With the beasts of fire and thunder distracted, the Dragontamer set his sights on his greatest foe - the Siren of the Seafoam Islands. Articuno flapped its elegant wings and immediately summoned a blizzard.
The Dragontamer wrapped himself in his flowing cape and embraced his mount, as the fires burning inside Dragonite kept his body from freezing in the sheer cold. As he did, the two Dragonites to his sides unleashed the Hyper Beams they'd poured their souls into. Articuno somersaulted in the air and effortlessly soared past the first beam, firing ice beams backward in revenge; one clipped the wing of a Dragonite as it recoiled from its assault, freezing the wing solid. After a few seconds, it shattered, spraying black ichor into the air. The Dragontamer felt his companion's pain as it tumbled to the ocean below, its futile efforts to slow its descent hampered by its sheer weight.
Inside the shroud of darkness, Zapdos and its rider flew in growing concentric circles, blasting lightning at every shadow that moved, in the hopes that the splashing of electricity might end the Madama Banshee for good. But the elderly hero could only sit on her throne of darkness and laugh as the bird's desperation grew.
The rider knew what he had to do - he just had to outspeed the illusion.
"Ride the lightning, Zapdos!" he roared, though his voice came out silent; nevertheless, he was one with his legendary mount. The bird disappeared in a flash of blue lightning and rapidly smashed against the perceived edges of the howling abyss.
After a few moments, to the rider's shock - the darkness disappeared. The smell of the salty ocean filled the rider's sinuses as he raised a hand in defiance, reorienting himself in space; he was now flying low, very close to the city. Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he saw the massive rock barricade tremble and flex, and the Wall's Onix brought its tail down directly on top of the bird and human, crushing them into a pile of red and black viscera.
Articuno, Moltres and their riders felt searing pain as the life of the third member of their trinity was snuffed out.
Their palpable shock opened them up to further assaults; the massive tsunami controlled by the Ice Queen quickly swirled around Moltres like a barrel around a surfer, before collapsing inward, forming a cavitation bubble that briefly reached the temperature of the sun. The bubble ruptured with explosive force, knocking the rider and the legendary bird unconscious. In a geyser of steam, the second of the great birds fizzled to ash, like a cigarette butt tossed into a hurricane.
"No!" Articuno's rider roared, as knife-like clouds of ice formed in the shadows of his mount's wings. This was not how it was meant to end; there was no way they could be defeated. "No more games! Freeze Dry!"
As the Dragontamer's two remaining Dragonites closed in, Articuno turned to meet one head on, and fired a vicious blast of absolute-zero air at the lesser dragon. In the span of a second, its entire body turned black as night with frostbite, before shattering like a stained glass window.
With only one Dragonite remaining, the Dragontamer gave what was to be his final command.
"We've only got one shot," he intoned solemnly, "Elites - it's been my utmost honor to serve with you. Dragonite! Draco Meteor!"
"Lance, no!" the Ice Queen screamed into her communicator, as the sky began to turn blood-red, its depth matched by Dragonite's glowing eyes. As a tremendous sphere of power began to form overhead, the Articuno and its rider suddenly vanished, reappearing behind the Dragontamer.
Lorelei couldn't believe Lance had fallen for the classic Double Team attack.
With breathtaking speed, the Articuno whipped its massive wings outward and wrapped them around the Dragontamer and his Dragonite, freezing them solid and dispelling the forming Draco Meteor. The icy legend then leapt off the newly-formed icicle and dropped it into the air, and from inside, the Dragontamer and his immobilized companion Dragonite watched helplessly as the ocean's surface rapidly approached.
As the Ice Queen and the Wall watched their commander's unceremonious defeat from afar, they heard the oddly reassuring cackle of the Madama Banshee in their earpieces.
"I always knew it would come to this," the dark mistress crooned. "Do not fear, my poppets. The battle is already won."
As Articuno's shadow reached the shores of Saffron City, the Banshee and her companion Gengar emerged from within it. Her crooked silhouette merged with that of Gengar, as the elder pointed her crooked fingers at the bird and whispered two most horrific words. As she did, she held a knife to her own throat.
"Destiny Bond," she whispered, before drawing the metal blade across her wrinkled skin.
As her blood sprayed into the air, the life appeared to leave Articuno's eyes. And then, gracelessly, in sync with Agatha's dying body, the legendary bird fell.
"Wow, that was the most incredible movie I've ever seen!" young Anastacia cheered, her adrenal glands still pumping. She walked with her best friend Leaf out of the movie theater in the heart of Saffron City, as Leaf looked up toward the sky ominously, half-expecting the sight of a crashing airplane.
"It was pretty good!" Leaf agreed. "Well, mostly."
"Is your grandma really like that? So selfless and self-sacrificing?" Anastacia continued. Leaf ran her fingers through her own hair, as she often did when she was deep in thought.
"I mean, she's pretty great," Leaf replied in the affirmative, "But it was kinda...I dunno...weird? That they just killed her off like that. I didn't see that coming."
"And the post-credits scene, OMG Leaf!" Anastacia bubbled, completely sidestepping her friend's concerns. "The EGG! What do you think it is? Do you think it's Moltres? Zapdos? Or a baby Articuno? Or something new? Oh my gods, I have so many questions!"
The sun had already set, and Leaf did not want to be home late. She walked ahead of her friend and silently guided Anastacia toward the nearest subway station, uncertainty taking up most of her own mental power.
Did Grandma know that she'd been written out of the movies? Did she speak to the actress playing her at all? The director? The producers? There was no way such a thing would have been approved without her Grandma's consent...so what did that mean?
"Leaf, walk faster," Anastacia's said, her tone of voice suddenly very serious. "And don't look back."
She did as she was told as Anastacia took the lead. She didn't like that tone. She didn't like that tone at all.
"What's happening?" she asked her friend, who had now entered into a light jog.
"Someone's following us,"
"Shit," Leaf muttered, reaching into her purse for her pepper spray. As she rifled through her stuff, her footfalls increasing in rapidity behind Anastacia's, she realized she didn't have it.
And it only took a moment before she realized that there were no people around to call out to for help.
A moment again, and suddenly, she didn't recognize the street she was on, or the buildings around her. They didn't look right. They didn't look real.
"Ah!" Anastacia yelped, stopping dead in her tracks. She backed into Leaf and pointed forward, her finger pointed at a slowly-approaching silhouette up ahead.
A creature with yellow fur stood under the single lit streetlamp. As Leaf met its gaze, it held up a pendulum, and began to swing it back and forth.
it.