Crown City lay beneath a sky choked with dark clouds.
The low, oppressive haze hung over the metropolis like a burial shroud, casting the streets in premature twilight despite the afternoon hour. The city that had once bustled with hundreds of thousands of people was eerily quiet now—its residents evacuated, its shops shuttered, its boulevards empty except for the occasional Officer Jenny patrol car and the distant wail of emergency sirens.
Gary rode Garchomp through the clouds above the city outskirts, descending rapidly toward the urban sprawl. The wind whipped past his face as Garchomp banked through a gap in the cloud cover, and Crown City's skyline came into view below—modern high-rises standing silent and dark, their windows reflecting nothing but gray sky.
"Hey! You up there—come down immediately!"
A voice pierced through the wind from below, amplified by a megaphone. Gary glanced down and spotted an Officer Jenny standing at a police checkpoint on the main road leading into the city, her blue uniform crisp, her expression stern, and her megaphone aimed directly at him.
The city's been locked down, Gary realized. After Kodai's evacuation broadcast, the Crown City police had sealed every entry point. No one was being allowed in while the "Legendary Beast crisis" was supposedly ongoing.
Gary considered his options. He still had a travel restriction on record from the Veilstone City meteorite incident—Cynthia had promised to have it lifted, but bureaucracy moved slowly. Getting into a confrontation with law enforcement right now would create complications he didn't need.
"Let's land," he told Garchomp.
Garchomp descended and touched down on the road near the checkpoint. Officer Jenny approached immediately, one hand on her belt.
"Don't you know Crown City is under emergency lockdown?" she demanded. "What are you doing trying to fly in?"
"I'm a trainer from the Kanto Region," Gary said calmly. "I was traveling through the area and wanted to visit Crown City. I wasn't aware of the situation."
Officer Jenny eyed him—then eyed Garchomp. Her expression clearly communicated that trainers from the Kanto Region didn't typically ride around on Garchomp, a Pokémon native to Sinnoh.
"Do you have identification?"
Gary produced his Pokédex. Officer Jenny took it and flipped it open, scanning the registered data: Gary Oak, Pallet Town, Kanto Region. Certifications from both Professor Oak and Professor Rowan. Eight Sinnoh Gym Badges. All legitimate.
"Your identity checks out," Jenny said, handing the Pokédex back. "But there's an emergency situation inside Crown City. I can't allow anyone to enter until the threat has been neutralized."
"Understood," Gary said, keeping his tone cooperative. There was no point arguing with a police officer doing her job.
He took back his Pokédex, recalled Garchomp, and walked away from the checkpoint without protest.
There are plenty of other ways into the city.
Gary spent the next hour scouting the perimeter. Every main road and bridge had a police checkpoint. The secondary roads were unmanned but covered by surveillance cameras. The entire city was wrapped in a security cordon—efficient, but not airtight.
The cameras are the weak point, Gary assessed. No physical officers, just electronic monitoring. At night, with the right approach, I can slip through without being detected.
"Looks like I'll have to wait until dark," he murmured.
He wasn't in a rush. Based on the movie timeline, Kodai wouldn't locate the Time Ripple until later in the sequence of events. There was time.
Night fell over Crown City.
The evacuated metropolis was pitch black—streetlights had been shut off to conserve the emergency power grid, and without the glow of a hundred thousand windows, the city looked like a corpse. Only the distant pulse of police sirens and the occasional sweep of a searchlight broke the absolute darkness.
Gary approached an unmanned entry point on the city's eastern perimeter—a service road that passed through a narrow gap between two commercial buildings. No officers. No barriers. But the road was lined with surveillance cameras on both sides, their red indicator lights blinking steadily in the darkness.
"Magnezone—disrupt the local magnetic field. Knock out all surveillance in this corridor."
Gary released Magnezone from its Poké Ball. The Magnet Area Pokémon hummed to life, its magnets crackling with electromagnetic energy.
"ZONE."
Magnezone pulsed. An invisible wave of magnetic interference expanded outward from its body, washing over the corridor in a cone of disrupted electromagnetic fields. Every camera in the area flickered—their screens turning to static in the monitoring room—then went dark.
"Go!" Gary whispered.
"Vui!"
Gary and Eevee sprinted through the corridor at full speed, Magnezone floating behind them. They cleared the passage in seconds—barely ten heartbeats from entry to exit. The moment they were through, Magnezone reversed the magnetic disruption, restoring the local field to normal. The cameras blinked back online, their feeds showing nothing but an empty, undisturbed corridor.
In the monitoring room somewhere across the city, a security guard frowned at a brief burst of static on several screens, then shrugged when the feeds returned to normal. Old equipment. Crown City's infrastructure was due for an upgrade anyway—once this Legendary Beast business was resolved, Kodai Network would probably fund new surveillance systems.
He returned to his coffee.
Inside the evacuated city, the silence was absolute. Gary moved through the empty streets like a shadow, Eevee on his shoulder, his footsteps echoing off the darkened storefronts. The city felt like a movie set after the crew had gone home—all the buildings and streets were there, but the life that filled them was absent.
I'm not going to find Celebi yet, Gary thought. The Time Ripple hasn't been located, and Celebi won't appear until it does. But the Legendary Beasts should already be in the city—they would have sensed Zoroark's illusions impersonating them and come to investigate.
"Let's head for the harbor district first," Gary said. "That's where the confrontation should be happening."
He recalled Magnezone and released Zapdos. The Legendary Bird materialized in a burst of crackling golden lightning, its magnificent wings spreading wide, electricity arcing between its feathers.
"ZAAAP!"
"Take me to the old city bay," Gary said, climbing onto Zapdos's back.
Zapdos launched skyward with a single powerful wingbeat, carrying Gary above the rooftops and angling toward the harbor district on Crown City's western edge.
BOOOOM!!
A pillar of flame erupted from the waterfront below—a massive column of fire that illuminated the entire harbor in searing orange-red light. The blast struck a transport seaplane moored at the docks, and the aircraft detonated in a secondary explosion that sent burning debris raining across the water.
"There they are," Gary said, his eyes locking onto the source of the attack.
"ZAAAP!" Zapdos cried out in warning, drawing Gary's attention downward.
He looked.
Three figures stood on the harbor's stone pier, silhouetted against the burning wreckage of the seaplane. Even from altitude, their forms were unmistakable—the powerful, regal shapes of the three Legendary Beasts, each one radiating an aura of primal authority.
Gary's system data flickered across his vision:
[LV65 Shiny Raikou — Legendary-tier]
[LV65 Shiny Suicune — Legendary-tier]
[LV65 Shiny Entei — Legendary-tier]
Level 65. All three of them.
Gary had expected the shiny Legendary Beasts of Sinnoh to be somewhat weaker than their Johto counterparts—the originals, roaming the land where they'd been resurrected by Ho-Oh, had centuries of accumulated power. These Sinnoh variants were younger, less experienced, more regional guardians than ancient legends.
But Level 65 was still lower than he'd anticipated.
They're weaker than my Blastoise and Tyranitar, he noted. Not by a huge margin—Level 65 is solidly Legendary-tier—but the gap is there. And they don't have the same battle experience as wild Legendary Pokémon that have been fighting for centuries. These three are guardians, not warriors. They protect Crown City's ecosystem, but they've rarely had to fight seriously.
This is manageable.
The three Legendary Beasts stood shoulder to shoulder on the pier, their gleaming chromatic bodies tense with aggression. Shiny Raikou's golden-brown mane crackled with residual electricity. Shiny Entei's smoke-gray volcanic mane billowed with heat. Shiny Suicune's crystalline crest shimmered with an ethereal blue-violet light. All three stared at the burning water, watching for signs of movement.
SPLASH!
The harbor water erupted. A dark figure burst from beneath the surface—black fur slicked with seawater, crimson mane plastered to its head, claws extended and eyes blazing with desperate fury. Zoroark—the Illusion Fox Pokémon—launched itself at Suicune with a savage snarl.
But the Legendary Beasts were ready. All three scattered with supernatural speed, and Zoroark's lunge hit empty air.
"ROOOOAR!" Zoroark snarled, skidding across the wet stone pier.
"Suuiii!" Suicune retaliated instantly—opening its jaws and unleashing a crescent-shaped blade of pressurized wind. Aurora Beam cut through the night air, screaming toward Zoroark.
Zoroark didn't dodge. It crossed its arms in front of its body and braced against the incoming attack, absorbing the hit with a grunt of pain. The wind blade scored deep marks across its forearms, but Zoroark held its ground.
[LV60 Zoroark ♀ — Champion-tier]
Level 60, Gary noted. Only five levels below the Legendary Beasts. No wonder she's been holding her own—Champion-tier Zoroark against three Level 65 Legendaries. She can't win, but she can survive.
And she's only fighting because Kodai took her child. She doesn't want to be here. She wants Zorua.
Hidden in the treeline at the edge of the harbor, two figures watched the battle unfold with anguished expressions—Karl and Rowena, the journalists who had discovered the truth about Kodai's scheme and Zoroark's forced participation. They wanted to help, but they were civilians—unarmed, without Pokémon strong enough to intervene, and terrified of being caught in the crossfire between four Pokémon of Legendary caliber.
"RAIII!"
"ENNN—TEI!"
"SUIII!"
The three Legendary Beasts roared in unified fury, preparing to launch a coordinated assault on Zoroark. They believed Zoroark was the enemy—the one who had impersonated them, rampaged through their city, and threatened the people they were sworn to protect. They didn't know about Kodai's manipulations. They didn't know Zoroark was a victim.
Time to intervene.
"Three against one, and the one's a mother fighting for her child," Gary called out, his voice cutting through the harbor noise with sharp clarity. "Not exactly a fair fight, is it?"
Every head turned.
The Legendary Beasts looked up. Zoroark looked up. Karl and Rowena looked up.
A golden figure was descending from the night sky—Zapdos, wings spread wide, electricity trailing from its feathers like comet tails. On its back stood a trainer, silhouetted against the clouds, arms crossed.
"ZAAAP—DOOOS!" Zapdos shrieked as it descended, the sound splitting the air like a thunderclap.
"Zoar…?" Zoroark stared at the approaching human with wary, distrustful eyes. After everything Kodai had done—capturing her, imprisoning her child, forcing her to use her powers for his scheme—she had no reason to trust any human.
Gary jumped from Zapdos's back when they were still several meters above the ground, landing in a crouch on the pier between Zoroark and the three Legendary Beasts. He straightened up and faced Zoroark directly.
"Zoroark—go find your child," he said. His voice was firm but not unkind. "Zorua is somewhere in the city. Go to it. I'll handle these three."
Zoroark's eyes widened. She searched Gary's face—looking for deception, for the cold calculation she'd seen in Kodai's eyes, for any sign that this was another trap.
She found none.
Without another moment's hesitation, Zoroark turned and bolted—sprinting away from the harbor and into the darkened streets of Crown City, disappearing into the shadows between buildings. Every instinct screamed at her to find her child, and this stranger had just given her the chance.
The three Legendary Beasts tensed, preparing to give chase—
"ZAAAP!"
Three bolts of lightning slammed into the ground directly in the Beasts' path, carving scorched lines into the stone pier. Zapdos hovered above, wings crackling, its golden eyes fixed on the three Legendaries with unmistakable warning.
You're not going anywhere.
"RAIII!" Raikou roared at Zapdos, furious—its own Electric-type pride bristling at being challenged by another lightning wielder. It barked what sounded like an accusation, as if demanding to know why Zapdos was protecting the creature that had dishonored their name.
"ZAAAP!" Zapdos responded with a dismissive screech. It didn't care about the politics. Gary had given an order, and Zapdos trusted Gary's judgment absolutely.
"I said I'll deal with this," Gary repeated, his voice dropping to something colder, more authoritative. "Did you not hear me?"
He threw two Poké Balls in rapid succession.
Blastoise materialized first—massive, battle-hardened, its twin shoulder cannons already primed. The Shellfish Pokémon planted itself on the pier with a ground-shaking impact, water vapor hissing from its cannons.
[LV74 Blastoise — Legendary-tier]
Tyranitar landed beside it—dark green armor gleaming, sand already beginning to whip around its body as Sand Stream activated. The Armor Pokémon let out a rumbling growl that vibrated through the pier's foundation.
[LV71 Tyranitar — Legendary-tier]