Outside Professor Oak's lab, the Professor and his Pokémon stood guard before the door, their expressions solemn.
The crystals outside were spreading faster and faster. It probably wouldn't be long before they reached the lab. Professor Oak couldn't say he was completely helpless against them, but protecting the entirety of Pallet Town was unrealistic.
He had Venusaur and Gengar working together to maintain a protective barrier around the lab's exterior. Venusaur's Frenzy Plant roots, fueled by its immense life force, formed a living shield, while Gengar used its mental power to patch gaps and directly shatter any crystals that tried to creep inward.
The spot where Professor Oak was standing now was where the crystals were most heavily concentrated. Barring anything unexpected, they would flood through this position in less than ten minutes.
Just as he braced himself, he noticed what seemed like a flash of transparent light across the sky. It lasted only a split second. He thought it was his imagination. Then he saw a figure running toward him from ahead, wearing a red-and-white cap with a Pikachu on his shoulder.
Not his imagination.
"Professor Oak!" Ash was momentarily stunned when he saw him. He'd detected Oak's presence in this direction through Aura, but hadn't expected him to be right at the entrance. Although he'd known for a while that Professor Oak was safe, seeing him in person still flooded him with relief.
"Ash? How did you get back so fast?" Professor Oak was more shocked than happy. They'd just finished their phone call not long ago. Ash should still be in Ecruteak City. Coming back from there would take at least a full day by train, and even riding a fast Flying-type Pokémon couldn't get him here in thirty minutes.
"Mewtwo."
Professor Oak understood immediately. If it was Mewtwo, thirty minutes was entirely possible.
"Professor Oak, where's my mom? And these Frenzy Plant roots, they're Venusaur's, right? What exactly happened here?"
Professor Oak waved his hand, signaling Ash to slow down. "Since you're back, what about those crystals outside?"
"Mewtwo's blocking them. As long as it's here, the crystals won't get through."
"Then the crisis is temporarily averted." Professor Oak breathed a sigh of relief, then recalled his Pokémon back into their Poké Balls. "Come inside first. This can't be explained in a moment or two."
The lab was packed with people. Neighbors sat in twos and threes in the main hall and along the backyard corridors, some holding their Pokémon, others clutching instant coffee that Professor Oak had hurriedly brewed. Their expressions were tense, but at least no one was injured.
When Ash pushed the door open, several familiar faces startled, then stood up.
"Ash? How did you get back?"
"Didn't you go to Johto? It's only been..."
"Why did you come back at a time like this? It's not safe!"
Ash nodded in response as his eyes swept through the crowd.
Delia stood in the innermost corner of the hall, bending over to feed Poké Blocks to a frightened Raticate. Hearing the commotion, she straightened up and saw Ash. She patted the crumbs off her hands, and before she could even speak, Ash had already crossed the distance in three quick strides.
"Mom."
Seeing that Delia looked completely fine, the impulse and fear in his chest cooled.
She patted her son's head, a gentle smile on her face. "Why did you suddenly run back? Don't you need to continue your journey?"
"I gave him a call." Professor Oak walked up from behind, his expression much more relaxed than before. "I told him something happened in Pallet Town, so he rushed right back from Ecruteak City."
Delia didn't press Ash on how he'd made a trip that should take a full day in under an hour. She knew her son was no longer the wet-behind-the-ears boy he'd been six months ago.
"Since you're back, let me tell you something." Delia's voice was very calm. "If you have a way, first take Professor Oak, the neighbors, and the Pokémon in the backyard out of Pallet Town. You've seen the situation outside. Those crystals keep spreading inward, and there's no telling how much longer Pallet Town can hold out."
She'd said so much, and hadn't mentioned herself once.
Ash finally grabbed Delia's shoulders and met her gaze. "Mom, I won't let anything happen to Pallet Town. Now that I'm back, Pallet Town will be fine."
Delia was stunned. Looking at her son standing before her, so much taller than before, a thousand thoughts flooded her mind.
"I understand. Go ahead and do what you need to do, Ash. I only have one request. Come back safely."
"Don't worry. I'm the one who's going to become a Pokémon Master. How could anything happen to me in my own hometown?"
A confident smile appeared on Ash's face, and he immediately turned to Professor Oak. "Tell me everything you know."
Professor Oak nodded, walked to the computer, and pulled up an image. A bizarre pattern appeared on the screen, looking like some ancient script, yet also resembling an eye. The edges of the pattern were blurry, as if slowly squirming.
"This is data Dr. Spencer Hale brought back from the ruins before he disappeared." Professor Oak's voice was steady, measured. "The Pokémon corresponding to this pattern is called Unown."
He scrolled down. Over twenty images of various shapes appeared on the screen, some looking like letters, some like eyes, some like twisted tentacles.
"Unown is a very special Pokémon. A single one has almost no power, weaker than even a Common-level Pokémon. But when their numbers reach two or more, something unbelievable happens. Different types of Unown each possess different abilities, and when they gather to a certain scale, these abilities stack on top of one another, triggering an extremely rare phenomenon."
He paused. "Dr. Spencer Hale's research proposed that Unown can perceive and grant the inner desires of humans."
The hall fell quiet for a moment, then a low murmur of discussion broke out. For the neighbors of Pallet Town, something like Unown was simply unheard of, let alone the idea that it could grant a human's wishes.
"According to the final report Dr. Spencer Hale sent back before his disappearance," Professor Oak continued, ignoring the chatter, "that Crystal Tower is highly likely a creation made by Unown in response to someone's wish. And the owner of that wish is most likely..."
"Molly." Delia spoke up.
"After Dr. Spencer Hale's accident, Molly has been living alone in the villa. Spencer was actually my senior schoolmate. He helped me with my homework back in the day, and our families were close. We just lost touch after they moved away."
"After his accident, I went to visit Molly often. Every time I brought food, I'd find her staring blankly at the belongings her father left behind. That child is not even ten years old." Delia's voice softened. "Her father's disappearance was too big of a blow. If there really is something that can grant wishes, she'd probably wish for her dad to come back."
Ash looked through the window of Professor Oak's lab at the tower soaring into the clouds. He'd already made his decision.
"You're planning to go inside the Crystal Tower and wake Molly up, aren't you?" Professor Oak saw through him immediately.
Ash didn't deny it.
He believed Molly didn't mean to cause any of this. As long as he went inside and talked things through with her properly, she would snap out of it, and the crystals would dissolve. As for Molly's father, since they still hadn't found a body, they couldn't definitively say he was dead. Once Ash woke Molly up, he could set aside his own journey and help look for Spencer together with her.
But the prerequisite for all of this was resolving the Unown situation first.
"Approaching the Crystal Tower won't be that easy." Professor Oak's voice turned grave. "When the tower first appeared, I had Dragonite approach from the air. He was intercepted before he even got close."
Ash's eyes narrowed. Professor Oak's Dragonite was intercepted? That was a Champion level Pokémon. Even if it hadn't seen real battle in years, the power it carried was genuine. What could possibly intercept it?
"This is a photo from the camera I attached to Dragonite." Professor Oak opened a folder and enlarged the image.
An orange-red giant beast with a body like a saber-toothed tiger. Two stream-like whiskers near its mouth spewing mist outward. Even from a photograph, the pressure radiating from its body was unmistakable.
"Entei." Ash said the name slowly. "One of the Legendary Beasts."
Misty and Serena couldn't help but cover their mouths. Entei was guarding the Crystal Tower? Why? Did the Unown have some connection to Ho-Oh?
"The power of this Entei is far beyond what I expected." Professor Oak revealed more. "My Dragonite's attacks landed clean, and seemed to deal damage, but the injuries healed almost instantly."
Being able to withstand Dragonite's attacks head-on meant this Entei was at least Champion Peak. Otherwise, even with regeneration, Dragonite would have finished it before it could heal. Compared to Raikou and Suicune, Entei's strength was indeed a cut above.
But if it was only Champion Peak, that alone shouldn't be enough to stop them from entering the Crystal Tower.
"There's something else." Professor Oak added. "That Entei can also control the surrounding crystals, giving it a terrain advantage. And though it looks like Entei and uses Fire-type moves, it doesn't feel right. I didn't sense the sacred aura that a Legendary Pokémon should carry."
Inside that Crystal Tower, there is a power that even I find highly threatening. Mewtwo's voice echoed in Ash's mind alone. If it were just a Champion Peak Entei, it couldn't possibly give me this feeling. There is something else inside.
Mewtwo shared this only with Ash. Telling the others would serve no purpose. It would only make them worry and try to stop Ash from entering. Because what lurked inside was a god-level presence.
And Mewtwo knew that no matter what was in there, Ash was going anyway.