"Gardevoir, Spacial Rend!"
A massive tear appeared in the fabric of space itself, as if reality had been sliced open by an invisible blade. The rift was pitch black, like staring into an abyss.
The spatial tear manifested directly through Zeraora’s chest, appearing to split the legendary Pokemon’s body in half.
Eventually, the dimensional rift stopped expanding, sealed itself, and vanished into nothingness. Zeraora crashed to the ground, finally defeated.
"I’ll have to thank the master when I get back," John murmured to himself.
The two Aura Spheres alone wouldn’t have been enough to defeat Zeraora. What truly finished it was Spacial Rend, the exclusive signature move of Palkia, the God of Space himself.
Looking down at the fallen Zeraora, John quickly threw a Premier Ball.
He was worried that defeating all the Pokemon in the dungeon might automatically eject him from the instance.
Zeraora, completely exhausted from the battle, offered no resistance and was captured without struggle.
The moment John picked up the Premier Ball, the scenery shifted around him, and he found himself back in his secret base.
This wasn’t the time to celebrate. John hastily teleported back to the Pokemon Center, heading for the PC storage system in the next room.
Relief washed over him when he saw the white-furred Zeraora resting peacefully in digital storage.
He accessed Zeraora’s status panel with trembling fingers.
[Zeraora (Electric)] (Shiny) (Legendary)]
[Ability: Volt Absorb (Pokemon with this ability is immune to Electric-type moves. When hit by Electric-type moves, it recovers 25% of its maximum HP.)]
[IV’s: HP (31), Attack (31), Special Attack (31), Defense (31), Special Defense (31), Speed (31)]
[Moves: Quick Attack, Fake Out, Power-Up Punch, Spark, Snarl, Quick Guard, Slash, Volt Switch, Charge, Thunder Punch, Plasma Fists, Hone Claws, Discharge, Wild Charge, Agility...]
Perfect IVs across the board, absolutely incredible!
John had never seen the stats of other legendary Pokemon, so he wasn’t sure if these god-tier creatures were naturally born with perfect stats. But he certainly wasn’t complaining.
What puzzled John was that Zeraora wasn’t holding any items.
There were no moves he didn’t recognize either.
"So the lightning barrier was just its natural mastery of electric abilities?" John speculated.
Honestly, this was better news than if Zeraora had possessed some exclusive held item. John had a Orb of Thunder lying unused in his inventory.
Equipping Zeraora with the Orb of Thunder would easily double, maybe triple, its combat effectiveness!
Still, John was curious about what Zeraora’s actual exclusive item might be. Next time he’d bring it to a solo dungeon and see what kind of loot dropped.
With the legendary Pokemon defeated, the source of the underground power station’s rampage was finally resolved. The dungeon instance disappeared entirely, when John tried to re-enter, it was just a normal power station map.
"So they’re not giving me a chance to catch a second legendary here?" John smirked. Good thing he knew of other hunting grounds.
He directed his character to find Nurse Joy for Pokemon healing while reviewing the Zeraora battle and planning its training regimen.
There was no question about Zeraora’s offensive capability and speed.
It would be basically impossible for any of John’s Pokemon to defeat Zeraora one-on-one, or even two-on-one, despite being only five levels higher.
Three-on-one seemed to be the minimum requirement, and even then it was challenging.
After all, Zeraora wasn’t an "extreme" speed specialist like Regieleki. Regieleki’s incredible velocity came at the cost of abysmal defensive stats.
If John could land a solid hit on Regieleki, it would be the one in the Premier Ball right now instead of Zeraora.
"When I get back, I need to teach Zeraora Mind Reader, Force Palm, and Close Combat," John planned.
"Then test if it has any aptitude for aura manipulation."
"Once it masters all those techniques, its combat power will increase dramatically!"
John could already envision a fully trained Zeraora equipped with the Orb of Thunder, cutting through enemies like a white lightning storm.
But that was the difference between trained Pokemon and wild ones.
Wild Pokemon were powerful due to their natural ferocity, but Pokemon raised by skilled trainers often possessed superior conditioning, technique mastery, and tactical coordination.
Combined with proper trainer commands, the combat effectiveness could be exponentially improved.
Under equal species and level conditions, a trainer’s Pokemon could consistently defeat their wild counterparts.
After Nurse Joy finished healing his team, John shut down the device and left his secret base.
When he teleported back to his original position, Scarlett was nowhere to be found.
That made sense, he’d spent over four hours grinding the underground power station seven consecutive times. She probably couldn’t wait any longer.
"Gardevoir, extend your psychic sense across the city. Find Scarlett’s location."
Gardevoir acted immediately, quickly locking onto Scarlett’s position and teleporting John there.
Among the rubble of the devastated city, Scarlett had just finished subduing a hypnotized Electivire and was cautiously retreating when she turned to find John materializing behind her.
She jumped in surprise.
"Your power..." Scarlett stared at John in amazement.
John had just teleported here without her Xatu detecting the psychic signature, which meant his shiny Gardevoir had surpassed her own in terms of mental prowess.
"What were you doing all this time?"
"Went to resupply," John replied casually. "What about you? What’s the situation here?"
"Didn’t I mention taking care of these hypnotized Pokemon?"
"Since I can’t confront that Zapdos head-on, I’m going with a roundabout approach, defeating these hypnotized Pokemon one by one, capturing them temporarily, then releasing them once they’re back to normal," Scarlett explained. It was the most foolproof method she could think of, albeit time-consuming.
"Fair enough, do what you think is best," John nodded. He had no idea what level this particular Zapdos was.
Even with Zeraora on his team, he could still vividly remember how a level 78 Zapdos had completely demolished him earlier.
Unless absolutely necessary, he’d rather not provoke a Zapdos that had mastered spatial manipulation abilities.
But John knew that the moment he started thinking defensively, he’d become like a death flag magnet in a war movie.
Fighting this Zapdos was probably inevitable.