The sky, clear from end to end a moment before, went black with cloud all at once, lightning and thunder tearing across it.
The trouble was that the plane had flown into that same stretch of sky and been caught in it. The fuselage was pitching about, in danger of going down.
"Boooom—"
A blinding bolt of lightning came straight in, went past every one of the guard Pokémon on the plane one after another, and struck hard against the aircraft's left side.
"Zzzzt, zzzzt—"
Where it hit, a charred hole opened on the instant, black smoke drifting out of it.
That one strike took the plane out of control altogether. It rocked from side to side and began to fall.
The people inside let out shrieks that cut at the ear, with the shadow of death over them.
"Passengers, please do not panic. We are preparing an emergency landing. Please stay calm."
With Pokémon in the world, the death rate in air disasters is greatly reduced. The moment the plane was in trouble, the guards aboard sent out a number of Flying Pokémon to join the rescue.
"Any Trainer with a Flying Pokémon, please lend a hand. And please have confidence in us — it will be all right."
The flight attendant's voice went on over the intercom, calming the passengers in the cabin.
The next moment a beam of light tore through the air, cut across the fuselage and burst; the plane broke into several sections and dropped fast toward the ground.
That made things more dangerous still, and it struck at the rescue effort on board as well.
"Rotten luck. You take one flight and you run into an accident."
Vance flickered and was standing on the other side of the cabin. At the critical moment, with that beam coming in, he had used Teleport to shift his position before it arrived.
"Come out, Aerodactyl."
Vance called the Aerodactyl out of its Poké Ball and climbed onto its back.
"No roaring. Keep it quiet. There are gods brawling up there. We're leaving — this way."
The Aerodactyl had let out an instinctive screech the moment it appeared, and Vance cut it off. Better to keep a low profile just now, and not draw down on them the attention of those gods overhead.
"Wuuu—"
The Aerodactyl gave a low, discreet cry, beat its wings and flew off below.
The wind tore past his cheeks. Behind them the sky churned and the thunder flashed, with waves of presence coming off it heavy enough to smother a man.
"Kreeee—"
Far off, there was nothing in sight but lightning; that stretch of sky had become a field of thunder.
"That's— how are there so many Legendary Pokémon?? What is going on over there?"
Once he had put some distance between them, Vance looked back, and what he saw made his eyes go wide.
What had he seen? Legendary Pokémon. And more than one of them.
Inside that region of thunder, besides the Zapdos, there were three more Legendary Pokémon.
A Regice, a Moltres and a Suicune.
So many Legendary Pokémon appearing one after another — that was enough to shake Vance.
One Legendary turning up now and then was normal enough. But several in a row, the way it was now, and fighting one another besides — that was out of the ordinary.
"There's something wrong with the state those Legendaries are in."
Vance had picked it up sharply. Apart from the Zapdos, there was something strange about the other three: through the fighting, the breath of life in them was draining away at speed, which was not right at all, and there was no spark in their eyes.
Nor did they carry that "feel" about them. Vance had noticed that too, and it struck him as odd.
"Kreeee—"
The Zapdos looked furious beyond measure, nothing left in it now but raw violence.
"Boom—"
In a blink the Suicune was the one marked out; the space around it locked tight and lightning poured into it, layer upon layer.
Inside that blinding field of lightning the Suicune could not get free. With a bang its whole body burst, torn into pieces.
"That's impossible!! How can a Legendary like Suicune die as easily as that? It has to be a fake."
Vance cried out from far off. Suicune — that was a Legendary Pokémon too, so how could it die that fast?? It had to be a counterfeit Suicune.
Following his own gaze, he saw a group of mysterious figures standing on the backs of Pokémon at the edge of the battlefield, watching in silence.
And after the Zapdos blew that Suicune apart, they took out two more Poké Balls and let out two more Suicune.
That performance made Vance's eyes go wide all over again. He swore out loud, and wondered what had become of this world, that Legendary Pokémon should suddenly be so thick on the ground.
Were Legendary Pokémon being sold wholesale now??
And who were those people, to have that many Legendaries in hand? Where had they caught them?
All of it was a mystery.
"Finish it quickly. It won't do to hang about here too long."
Someone in the group called out, hurrying the men beside him along.
"They're nothing but 'consumables.' What are you holding back for? What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing, nothing, nothing."
Under Vance's astonished eyes, two more Legendary Pokémon appeared in that area and closed in to kill the Zapdos, fighting like mad things, trading wound for wound.
"Enough of this. Aerodactyl, let's get out of here, quickly."
Vance had watched about as much of the show as his nerve would stand, and did not dare keep looking.
If he stayed any longer and those mysterious figures spotted him, he would be in trouble.
"Roar, roar—"
The Aerodactyl understood how grave this was as well, and pulled back at once.
From the Aerodactyl's back Vance looked back across the distance and saw the Zapdos being hunted down. Two fists could not hold off four pairs, and against Legendaries attacking with no regard for their own lives, it was already losing.
Still, none of it was Vance's business, and as he was now, he could not have got involved anyway.
It did remind him of a newspaper he had read a while back, which had written about a group of mysterious figures, figures connected with Legendary Pokémon. Perhaps those figures were these people here.
"This world really isn't simple. I don't think this lot show up in the original at all."
Vance muttered it, casting back over the anime he had watched in his previous life. There was no sign of these people in it, and what was happening he could not say.
With Legendaries as thick as this, though, one man did come to mind. In the original, while Ash Ketchum was travelling in Sinnoh, he ran into a Trainer called Tobias at the conference who brought out Legendary Pokémon, and Ash was beaten by him.
That man had been nicknamed the Legendary Pokémon guy.
In the original there were several other Trainers who had caught Legendary Pokémon as well — Brandon and Noland of the Battle Frontier, and Inspector Joy, and others besides.
"Never mind it. Better to get clear first. This isn't something I can get mixed up in as I am now."
Vance said it to himself. Curiosity killed the cat; even if this crowd were up to something evil, it was not for him to worry about.
If the sky fell, there were taller men to hold it up.
Whether they were doing evil or whatever else they had in mind, it was the Pokémon League's headache.
As for Team Rocket's side of it, that concerned him less still.
And in the end, when Boss Giovanni finally took the stage — never mind anything else, that Beedrill of his alone would be enough to show them all over again what a perfectly unremarkable Beedrill really is.
A battle as shattering as the Zapdos's, which had brought an airliner down besides, naturally drew official attention.
Several overbearing presences were already making for that lightning-choked region. What came of it after that, Vance did not know.