Gardevoir teleports an Ampharos mid-Discharge into a corner, and Garchomp instantly finishes it with Earth Power.
John then throws a Pokeball to capture it.
The Ampharos, already drained of physical strength and suffering heavy injuries, was unable to resist and was easily subdued by John.
John glanced at this Ampharos’s level.
"This Zapdos also knows to take the elite route," John muttered.
This was the thirteenth Pokemon he had captured, and every Pokemon that Zapdos had hypnotized and sent through the spatial rifts was above level 50.
However, this level of opponent was still too weak for John.
One strike from Garchomp, easy to subdue.
In the distance, Scarlett was also on the move. Her Xatu wasn’t as strong in spatial manipulation as John’s Gardevoir, but it was also proficient in Teleport.
Teleporting Scarlett’s Ground-type, Golem, resulted in another one-shot Earth Power kill.
Then a clean capture and containment. You had to remember that before entering this crisis zone, Scarlett was also a powerhouse who could defeat foreign elites head-on. Her strength was almost at the level of a Draconian Gym Leader.
Because Xatu was naturally gifted with Future Sight, every move had been calculated in advance, which gave her perfect concealment.
So John and Scarlett slowly "rescued" all the Pokemon controlled by the hypnosis technique in the north and south sections of the city.
In less than two minutes, Zapdos’s lieutenants Bronzong and Metagross emerged to inspect their territory.
Neither of them were stupid. One or two Electric Pokemon escaping hypnosis might have been an accident, but more than a dozen Pokemon disappearing one after another right under their noses?
If they couldn’t even locate those Pokemon with a mental scan, something was definitely up!
Therefore, Bronzong and Metagross began searching the entire city from above.
Teleport, Future Sight, Psychic scanning!
Their methods were relentless.
They frequently landed where Pokemon had disappeared, but they always arrived just a moment too late.
Both John’s Gardevoir and Scarlett’s Xatu had superior psychic mastery compared to the two supervisors Bronzong and Metagross.
"Let’s withdraw for now. If Bronzong and Metagross can’t find anything, they’ll eventually give up and return," Scarlett had Xatu communicate with Gardevoir, who then relayed the message to John.
A minute later, the two met in the wilderness outside the city.
"How much time do we have left?" Scarlett asked John.
"More than three hours," John replied. There were still three hours left before the twelve-hour deadline he’d agreed on with his mentor.
"Then let’s wait an hour before resuming operations."
"Don’t bother, I have a solution," John revealed his Z-bracelet, fuzed with a Mega Ring.
Colorful light flashed as Gardevoir underwent MEGA evolution.
"Mega Gardevoir?" Scarlett was surprised. She hadn’t expected he’d also obtained the MEGA Stone for his Gardevoir.
Tsk tsk, John’s luck was exactly the kind that made people envious!
"Gardevoir, extend your psychic power across the entire city. Use Teleport to bring everyone to us," John commanded.
The range of Gardevoir’s Teleport was limited by the distance her mental power could cover. When forcibly moving opponents, the range was only one-third of her psychic reach, but even at one-third, after MEGA evolution, it was more than sufficient.
A Magnezone was teleported over.
Garchomp struck with Earth Power, and then John captured it with a Pokeball.
"Forced teleportation? Your Gardevoir’s Teleport mastery is really impressive," Scarlett couldn’t help but praise.
Just like that, their systematic capture of the hypnotized Pokemon continued in an orderly fashion. Even when Bronzong and Metagross sped up their desperate flight patterns, or raised their altitude to scan from above, they couldn’t catch John and Scarlett.
A piercing cry echoed from the city...
"Zapdos has awakened!" Scarlett’s face turned serious. "Let’s withdraw immediately, teleport to that house in the city, and wait for Zapdos to leave before we continue capturing Pokemon."
"It’s too late," John shook his head. The dark thunderclouds in the distance had already appeared and were flying toward them at an astonishing speed.
Zapdos had locked onto their location.
In just one breath, the thundercloud crossed several thousand meters and stopped directly above John and Scarlett. A massive golden bird spread its razor-sharp wings and glared down at them with its piercing beak.
As a legendary Pokemon, Zapdos possessed a unique aura of oppression. The very air seemed to crackle with electric tension.
Not long ago, it had awakened from its "power source" slumber only to discover that a large group of Pokemon it had worked so hard to transport to this dimension had vanished, and the remaining few were still being teleported away right in front of it.
Could this be tolerated?
Zapdos caught the "scent" of spatial disturbances and immediately locked onto the thieves’ position.
Time to eliminate them!
"Scarlett, step aside and wait for news. I’ll handle this," John said, tossing her the spatial locator.
"This isn’t a Pokemon you can easily deal with alone. Let’s fight together," Scarlett looked up at Zapdos and pulled out two Pokeballs. Before making their plan, she had expected there might be a battle with Zapdos, so she had come prepared.
"No need. Dealing with Zapdos won’t leave me extra energy to watch out for you," John shook his head slightly, raising his hand to catch three Pokeballs.
Scarlett: [visible confusion]
I haven’t seen you for a year, and I can’t say I’ve noticed much else changing, but your arrogance has definitely become more obvious.
But John ignored her. His attention was locked onto the sky. Compared to the Zapdos he’d fought in the underground power station, this one wasn’t quite as powerful.
And now he had Zeraora.
He just might be able to pull off a two-for-one legendary sweep today.
Three Pokeballs flew skyward. Greninja, Garchomp, and Zeraora materialized in rapid succession.
Scarlett’s jaw dropped.
"What the hell is that white cat?! The mythical Electric Pokémon, Zeraora?!"
"Wait... isn’t Zeraora supposed to be yellow?"
"Holy shit. A Shiny Zeraora?!"
Just what had John gone through this past year?