"If you open that door, you'll be responsible for killing everyone on this plane!"
"You'll go to prison—assuming any of us survive!"
"Just leave it closed! Maybe the pilots can still get us out of this!"
The passengers shouted over one another, their voices edged with panic.
None of them dared unfasten their seat belts, but that did not stop them from glaring at Aaron and the flight attendant as though the two of them were the real danger.
The attendant hesitated.
Aaron saw the doubt return to her face and turned toward the cabin.
"Enough."
A crushing pressure swept through the rows.
The shouting stopped instantly.
Passengers stiffened in their seats, faces paling as Aaron's presence bore down on them. The threat in his expression made it clear that his patience was gone.
"Stay in your seats and keep quiet."
No one challenged him.
Aaron drew a Poké Ball from his belt.
"Frog Boss, I need you."
Red light flashed, and Greninja appeared beside the emergency exit.
"Grenin."
"When the hatch opens, seal the doorway with Bubble. Keep the cabin pressurized and don't let anything outside get through."
Greninja gave a firm nod.
The flight attendant looked between them.
Aaron met her eyes.
"I know what I'm doing. Once I'm outside, close the hatch behind me."
She was still frightened, but the certainty in his voice steadied her.
"Are you sure?"
"If we do nothing, those Pokémon will tear the aircraft apart."
Another impact rocked the plane, proving his point.
Aaron braced himself against the wall without losing his balance.
"This is our best chance."
The attendant drew a slow breath, then nodded.
"All right. I'm trusting you."
She moved to the emergency controls.
Aaron turned to Greninja.
"Get ready."
"Grenin."
Greninja brought its hands together.
A dense sphere of water formed between its palms, rapidly expanding until it spread across the entire hatch like a transparent membrane. The surface rippled with tightly compressed energy, sealing the opening from the cabin.
The attendant checked the barrier once, then gripped the handle.
"I'm opening it."
She released the locking mechanism.
The emergency hatch swung outward behind Greninja's barrier.
Beyond it waited thin air, freezing temperatures, and winds powerful enough to rip an ordinary person away in an instant.
The water membrane held.
Not so much as a breeze entered the cabin.
Aaron stepped through the barrier and emerged onto the exterior of the aircraft.
The wind struck him from every direction. His clothes snapped violently against his body, while the cold bit into every patch of exposed skin.
Even a powerful Flying-type would struggle in conditions like these.
Aaron merely adjusted his footing.
Still nowhere near enough to stop me.
He looked back through the shimmering barrier.
"Frog Boss, stay here. Protect the cabin and take down anything that gets too close."
"Grenin."
Greninja lowered itself into a ready stance.
Aaron smiled.
Then, before the horrified flight attendant could say another word, he pushed away from the aircraft and disappeared into the clouds below.
For a moment, everyone inside the cabin simply stared.
Then the shouting began again.
"He jumped!"
"Was that his entire plan?"
"He opened the door just to throw himself out of the plane?"
"We're doomed!"
"Serves him right," someone muttered. "He was trying to show off."
"He actually thought he could save us?"
"Close the hatch before those things get inside!"
The masked woman who had been seated beside Aaron stared through the open doorway with open disgust.
At a moment like this, he had risked the entire aircraft for some reckless stunt.
So much for the confidence he had shown earlier.
Then a roar tore through the sky.
"GYAAAAA-RAAAH!"
The sound rolled over the aircraft like thunder.
Every passenger near a window turned at once.
A vast serpentine shape surged upward through the clouds.
Gyarados emerged alongside the plane, nearly sixteen meters long and covered from head to tail in hardened blue scales. Long horns swept back from its skull, while jagged fins ran along its neck and spine.
Flame Clouds coiled around its enormous body, carrying it effortlessly through the sky.
As Gyarados twisted through the clouds, the weather changed around it. Dark clouds gathered overhead, and thunder rumbled across the horizon.
Gyarados had arrived.
Before the passengers could recover, another roar answered from below.
"ZAAARD!"
Charizard burst through the clouds in a blaze of fire.
Dragon scales covered its massive frame, and flames streamed from its body as its wings drove it upward beside Gyarados. It looked less like an ordinary Charizard than a living firestorm given wings.
But that was not what left the cabin speechless.
Aaron stood balanced atop Charizard's head.
His clothes whipped in the wind, yet he remained perfectly steady as the two enormous Pokémon flew alongside the damaged aircraft.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
Then the cabin erupted.
"What kind of Gyarados is that?"
"Those are both his Pokémon?"
"How can someone his age command Pokémon that powerful?"
"He wasn't trying to escape—he really went out there to save us!"
"That's the same young man from before!"
"He must be one of Hualis's top young trainers."
Several passengers who had mocked Aaron only moments earlier slowly lowered their eyes.
They had dismissed him as a reckless fool.
Now he stood in the open sky between the aircraft and the creatures trying to destroy it, accompanied by two Pokémon powerful enough to shake the clouds themselves.
The masked woman stared at Aaron through the window, her earlier disgust replaced by stunned disbelief.
Outside, Aaron raised his head and turned toward the dark shapes closing in on the plane.
The Twin Dragons had entered the battle.
...