East of Goldenrod, west of Route 32, lay a beautiful green meadow voted "The number one place girls most want to go in Johto."
Right now, however, it was shrouded in fear.
Even though night had already fallen, the flow of people and cars leaving the nearby town still packed the roads to overflowing.
Most of the residents of Greenfield and the tourists who had come here were terrified by the towering Crystal Tower at the edge of the field—along with the ever-expanding crystalline domain surrounding it—and had begun to flee.
Even with Officer Jenny and the police trying to calm everyone down, the evacuation was still frantic and desperate.
Greenfield wasn't far from Goldenrod. Although the Ruins of Alph nearby were also worrisome, Lucas still rode Arcanine and rushed to Greenfield as quickly as he could.
"Awwwoo…"
By the crowded roadside, Arcanine came to a halt and stared in surprise at the enormous crystal tower in the distance.
Things had blown up this big?
Lucas's eyesight was nowhere as sharp as Arcanine's, so he could only just barely make out the outline of the crystal tower in the night.
But even the outline was shocking enough.
"So this is the power of the Unown… truly shrouded in mystery, truly unknown…"
Murmuring to himself, Lucas worked his brain, recalling what he knew about Unown.
Unown looked like Latin letters, with 26 letter-shaped forms, plus forms for a question mark and an exclamation point.
Normally Unown only lived in space–time rifts, and almost nobody ever came into contact with them.
As a result, though there were 28 different types, and each form likely had different abilities, no one knew what those abilities were. Unown resembled the writing found on ancient stone tablets and might be related to them.
A single Unown could hardly do anything. Once there were two or more, however, some kind of mysterious power would arise between them.
Inside that Crystal Tower, there were probably hundreds, even thousands, of Unown.
With such a huge number of Unown generating that power, even Lucas couldn't afford to be careless.
Right now, he needed to find Professor Oak and learn the current situation inside the Crystal Tower.
From what he remembered of the movie's side characters, Professor Oak should, by now, have a communicator capable of contacting people inside the tower. Finding him would be the fastest way to learn what was going on.
Maybe his luck was good today. Just as Lucas was trying to recall where Oak would be, someone came looking for him.
A young male officer in a police cap fought his way past the congested road and approached Lucas and Arcanine, who were standing on a small slope.
While glancing curiously at Arcanine, the officer spoke politely to Lucas. "Trainer, the area ahead is dangerous. Please don't go any further."
"Officer, I'm looking for Professor Oak. Do you know where he is?"
Instead of turning back as the officer expected, Lucas asked very seriously.
The officer froze and withdrew his gaze from Arcanine, giving Lucas a proper look. For some reason, he felt Lucas looked familiar.
But to uphold his duty and obey orders from his superiors, the officer still replied by the book. "For your safety and your partner's safety, please don't proceed any—"
Before he could finish, a firm yet heroic female voice cut in.
"Let him through. I'll take him to Professor Oak myself."
Hearing that voice, the officer blinked and looked back.
He saw his superior, Officer Jenny, standing there at some point, staring straight at Lucas.
"Officer Jenny…"
"Go help with crowd control."
Jenny patted the male officer's shoulder, indicating he should step back and let her speak with Lucas.
It was an order from his superior, so he could only obey and retreat.
But before he fully turned around, he saw something astonishing.
Officer Jenny's legs were together, posture upright and formal, her face filled with seriousness and respect as she saluted Lucas. "Thank you for coming to our aid, Mr. Lucas!"
Lucas slid down off Arcanine's back and gave her a somewhat surprised look. "You know who I am?"
Jenny nodded seriously. "The Jenny in Goldenrod is my older sister. After the Team Rocket robbery incident, we were ordered to make sure we could recognize you, so we wouldn't be discourteous."
Powerful Trainers were already worthy of respect, and Lucas was the kind of powerful Trainer who had stepped up and stopped a major anomaly in the Orange Archipelago.
Before, Jenny had only heard of that case and thought whoever pulled that off was extraordinary.
Now, with all four of Johto's Elite Four and the Champion on missions elsewhere, and the nearest high-level help at least one night away from Greenfield, Lucas was like rain falling on parched land. To Jenny, who was watching him appear like welcome relief, he was a strong ally she respected from the bottom of her heart.
"You've stolen my lines entirely," Lucas said, scratching his head and a little embarrassed to meet her reverent gaze.
After all, he hadn't planned to come here initially. And even now, he was only here because he wanted to indulge himself a little.
"I'll offer you a proper apology later," Jenny said. "Please come with me. Professor Oak and Professor Hale's assistant are at the Pokémon Center."
"There's no need to—"
Patting Arcanine to get it moving, Lucas followed Jenny.
Behind them, the male officer finally snapped out of it, shocked as he watched Lucas's disappearing back.
He now understood why Lucas had looked so familiar.
He was the rumored hero who had stopped the rampage of the three legendary birds in the Orange Archipelago.
With him here, everything would definitely work out… right?
…
"Ash! Ash!"
In a room in the Pokémon Center housing several computers, Professor Oak was shouting anxiously into a communicator shaped like a small kid's watch.
There was no response from the other side—only the occasional majestic roar of a beast, and the sounds of intense battle.
When Jenny brought Lucas here, this was what he walked in on.
Hearing the beastly roars echoing in the room, Lucas frowned slightly.
So Ash was already fighting Entei?
Was it Pikachu? Or Charizard?
Only after Hale's assistant reminded him did Oak notice Jenny and Lucas had arrived.
When he saw Lucas, a flicker of surprise flashed in Oak's eyes. His gaze lingered on the Arcanine at Lucas's side for a long moment before he forced himself—through sheer willpower—to look away.
Worthy of his reputation as a world-famous Pokémon Professor, Oak got straight to the point, as if he already knew why Lucas had come. He gave a brief summary of the current situation.
Inside the Crystal Tower, an Entei that seemed to have been created by Unown's power was blocking Ash and his party, and had launched an attack on them.
"Ash and Pikachu seem to have been stopped by Entei—the one born from Molly's dreams using the power of the Unown. After I heard Ash shout 'Charizard!' there's been no more response."
"Could his Charizard have flown over from the Charicific Valley? Or in the dream world inside the Crystal Tower, can Ash and the others manipulate the dream freely as well?"
Oak frowned, connecting a few fragments of information he'd heard through the communicator and offering a guess.
Stripping out Oak's incorrect speculation, Lucas locked onto the key word—"Charizard"—and understood the current situation.
The Charizard from the valley had arrived and was currently one-on-one against the phantom Entei.
And the timing… was perfect.
Worried he might have arrived late and missed the best window, Lucas relaxed a little and said to Oak, "Leave the rest to me."
"Sorry to trouble you again, Mr. Lucas," Oak replied, nodding. With Lucas here, he finally felt he could breathe.
He hadn't brought his old partner on this trip, and the Pokémon Center's PC transfer system was down. Even if he had Kid call his partner and have it fly over, the distance from Pallet to Greenfield meant it would probably be dawn by the time it arrived.
Lucas's sudden appearance, like timely rain, soothed Oak's anxious heart somewhat.
Under the trusting gaze of everyone in the Pokémon Center, Lucas remounted Arcanine, released Delibird, and rushed straight toward the Crystal Tower—still expanding its crystalline domain outward.
Very soon, despite the darkness, as the distance shrank, even Lucas could clearly make out the terrain around the tower.
The soil, the grass, the trees, the vivid flowerbeds, human houses and vehicles—everything had been crystallized by a mysterious force, and that crystallization was still spreading.
At the source of it all, the Hale Mansion at the center was wrapped in petal-like crystal structures.
From within came the faint sounds of intense battling.
Given Charizard's current strength, it wouldn't be able to hold out too long against Entei—a legendary Pokémon used as a template and then created by the power of many Unown.
Lucas decided he needed to make things a little… louder.
"Stop sleeping. Time to work."
He poked Victini, which was still invisible and fast asleep on his shoulder—so deeply that even Jenny and Professor Oak hadn't noticed it at all.
He remembered clearly how dangerous these crystals were. Once touched, who knew what unexpected consequences might occur?
In the movie, Ash's group had snuck into the Crystal Tower through an uncrystallized stream, but that required going the long way around. He preferred something simpler, more straightforward—
Using brute force, and smashing straight through.
"Viiini~"
Roused by Lucas, Victini blinked sleepily, yawned, then floated drowsily onto Arcanine's head. A golden aura began to ripple around it.
In almost no time, Arcanine felt its body overflowing with power, so much so that it was on the verge of bursting, along with a sense that it could do literally anything.
At the same time, Lucas called out in his mind, "System, time to work."
[System at your service. Please set a destination!]
"Where Charizard and Entei are fighting."
[Routing in progress… Route calculated!]
In Lucas's field of vision, a clear marker appeared.
It was changing in real time, too, showing how intense the battle between Charizard and Entei already was.
Lucas narrowed his eyes, confirmed the direction, and patted the already eager Arcanine beneath him, then pointed toward a spot and said solemnly, "Burn it all—Overheat!"
"Awooooo——!"
Ecstatic, Arcanine threw back its head and howled. Light burst from its mouth, no weaker than the light from a typical Pokémon using a Z-Move.
The air around them instantly grew scorching hot, the crimson glow nearly bright enough to illuminate half the sky.
A terrifying ball of flame swelled in front of Arcanine, condensing and compressing. At this level, Arcanine still couldn't both unleash its full power and protect Lucas at the same time.
That was where Delibird in his arms came in.
Delibird began manipulating ice-type energy. Using itself, Lucas, and Victini as the center, it drew water from the air, freezing it into layers of melting and refreezing ice shields to block the heat.
Fortunately, it had just rained in Greenfield not long ago; there was plenty of moisture in the air for Delibird to use. Arcanine also did its best to keep the fireball from impacting its rear.
Only with Delibird putting everything into the ice shields could they withstand even the aftershocks of that crimson heatwave.
The next instant—
As the fire was compressed to its absolute limit, with Victini's infinite energy pouring in, the now gold-streaked crimson fireball exploded forward under Arcanine's control, turning into a terrifying tidal wave of flames. Carrying the power of a volcanic eruption pushed to the extreme, it annihilated everything in its path—including those crystal structures.
BOOM——KABOOM!!!
A torrent of smoke was hurled into the sky by the blast of flame. The destructive "Overheat" lived up to its name, more like an "Inferno Overdrive" pushed beyond its limits, burning away everything before it.
Fire raged wild as a dragon, the shattered crystals revealing scorched, bare earth. The ground glowed red like a furnace, blackened wasteland stretching into the distance, and even the night sky itself looked eerily lit.
On the distant Crystal Tower, even those giant crystal petals had been punctured by a massive, jagged hole.
Seeing the devastation in front of him—and having already confirmed there were no humans or Pokémon along the path—Lucas gently patted Arcanine, telling it to sprint at full speed down the newly carved tunnel.
After releasing such an overwhelming move, Arcanine felt utterly refreshed. It barked excitedly and surged forward like a living fireball.
Only Lucas's muttered words were left behind, slowly scattering into the air.
"Good thing I'm a professional in agriculture. Once this is over, I should be able to restore this place. That way I won't get arrested for destroying a tourist spot…"
The commotion Lucas caused was so great it was impossible to hide from anyone in Greenfield.
...
Pokémon Center.
Professor Oak and Officer Jenny rushed outside and stared at the column of flame lighting up the sky, clicking their tongues.
"This is… outrageous…"
…
Inside the Crystal Tower, shortly before this—
Ash was commanding his Charizard, already exhausted from prolonged fighting, as it tangled with Entei.
This Entei's stamina seemed endless; it was the strongest opponent Ash had faced since becoming a Trainer.
Even though Charizard had the advantage in the air, crystal pillars kept protruding from the tower walls at just the right times, appearing beneath Entei's feet. They even helped the flightless Entei completely overpower Charizard in mobility.
Worse, whenever the tired Charizard drew close to the tower, crystal spikes would suddenly shoot up, stabbing at Charizard's most vulnerable and least-protected spot: its belly.
Even the stubborn Ash knew the longer this dragged on, the slimmer their chances of victory became.
Misty's and Brock's Pokémon had already been defeated by the crystallized Pokémon of adult Molly and child Molly. Pikachu was also gravely injured. The only thing left able to fight was Charizard, who had rushed here to help.
"Damn it… Charizard!"
Just as Ash was about to gamble everything, perhaps due to sheer accumulated fatigue from the prolonged battle, Charizard let its focus slip for a split second.
Or maybe Ash's shout drew its attention.
Charizard failed to notice a crystal pillar lancing toward its back and took a direct hit, roaring in pain as it crashed down onto the spike.
Though it quickly realized the danger and struggled to move despite the pain, Entei was already in front of it, flames gathering at its mouth as it prepared a blazing "Flamethrower" in the shape of a massive, fiery kanji. It clearly intended to take out Ash riding on Charizard's back along with it!
At that very moment—
A violent tremor shook the entire Crystal Tower. A terrifying blast struck the outer crystalline petals guarding it, and countless crystal spikes jutting from the tower snapped from the shockwave.
The broken spikes included the one Ash and Charizard and Entei were standing on.
As the sensation of free-fall hit, Entei immediately canceled its "Fire Blast."
Created by Molly's dreams and the power of the Unown, it paid no mind to recoil at all.
It turned its burning gaze toward the source of the explosion, and its roar carried its towering fury.
"ROAR!"
Taking advantage of the brief distraction, Charizard recovered enough to move, flapped its wings, and landed in front of the equally stunned Brock, Misty, Pikachu, Delia, Molly, and the Team Rocket trio.
"Ash! Are you okay?!"
Hearing the anxious voices behind him—especially his mom Delia's—Ash only nodded to indicate that he and Charizard were fine. His eyes stayed fixed on the gigantic hole blown open by the explosion. Something told him that someone was coming.
If Ash relied on instinct, Entei relied on clear perception. It could feel several unfamiliar auras charging toward them at incredible speed.
Enraged, it once again condensed scorching flames and fired them in that direction.
Anyone who threatened Molly, its daughter, was an enemy.
"Extreme Speed!"
Facing down Entei's looming, volcanic blast, a calm male voice rang out.
The next instant—
Everyone—Ash and the others—saw a brilliant green streak explode from the smoke. A massive figure, no smaller than Entei, tore through the air at unimaginable speed, dodged the "Fire Blast," and slammed into Entei, sending it flying!