"Mmm..."
Hakuya frowned slightly, then nodded secretly.
He roughly knew where the plot had progressed.
Team Galactic's scientist named Charon had only recently interpreted a key piece of information from the murals—unlike the legend told by the old lady in Snowpoint City, Uxie and the others weren't in the three lakes of the Sinnoh region, but lived in a different dimension connected by the lakes.
Normally, those three Legendary Pokémon probably would never appear unless the different dimension was opened by some special means.
It seemed Team Galactic had thought of a solution now, but it required huge electricity for laboratory experiments, so they dispatched a Commander to the Valley Windworks to steal electrical energy.
On the side, having spilled all the information she knew, the enchanting red-haired beauty raised her head, looking at Hakuya cautiously.
For Mars at this moment, the overly disparate strength gap left her with no thought of resistance.
She was now more worried about whether the black-haired youth before her would go back on his word...
"Okay, I'm clear on everything. You can take your subordinates and leave now."
Seeming to sense the red-haired beauty's thoughts, Hakuya came back to his senses, patted her head, and laughed softly.
With this posture, he inexplicably had the illusion of training a female villain.
"Commander Mars!"
A woman in a white coat ran out of the core power generation area not far away in a panic.
Judging from her attire and appearance, she should be the researcher Mars sent in earlier to collect electrical energy for remote transmission.
She looked at the Team Galactic members lying scattered and unconscious around, then saw Mars paralyzed in front of a strange black-haired youth. Her originally panicked expression froze immediately.
But at this moment, the hardened glass on top of the power plant shattered with a boom at some point.
"Roar-zap~"
Seemingly disturbed by Team Galactic while absorbing electricity, a bird Pokémon covered in golden feathers suddenly opened its scarlet eyes, flying out of the core power generation area factory building.
Bursts of sound waves erupting from its beak directly rippled the surrounding air. Like silver snakes breaking free from shackles, countless electric arcs danced and surged in the air, blasting continuously downwards.
"Gardevoir, protect with psychic power."
"Gar~"
Hearing a cold, soft hum, the dancing silver snake currents were completely blocked by pink-purple light waves, also successfully stopping this Pokémon from destroying the power plant.
"This is?!"
Exclaiming simultaneously, Irida and Mars had different expressions.
The former had never seen this bird Pokémon covered in golden feathers surrounded by currents. The latter recognized it, just completely unexpected to encounter it here.
Hakuya frowned, also recognizing its name immediately.
[Name: Zapdos]
[Type: Electric + Flying]
[Gender: Female]
[Level: Lv65]
[Ability: Pressure (Raises the opponent's PP usage.)]
[Moves: Agility, Charge, Roost, Discharge, Rain Dance, Thunder, Magnetic Flux, Hurricane, Heat Wave, Volt Switch]
[Equipped Attributes: None]
Known as one of the Three Legendary Birds along with Articuno and Moltres, Zapdos was a Legendary bird Pokémon capable of manipulating lightning at will. Usually secretive in its whereabouts, besides appearing in pitch-black thunderclouds, occasionally Trainers could see their traces in some large power plants.
Only, he didn't expect to actually encounter one at the Valley Windworks today.
"Prepare for battle, Articuno."
With the idea of capturing it to generate electricity for the farm, Hakuya sent out the Pokémon who was also one of the Three Legendary Birds without hesitation.
Sensing the sudden drop in temperature around, Zapdos roared high into the sky. Its golden feathers surrounded by "crackling" currents stood up accordingly. Combined with the [Pressure] ability, it erupted with unprecedented coercion.
As a Legendary bird Pokémon, she accepted the challenge immediately.
"Roar-zap~"
In an instant, Zapdos folded its wings abruptly. Fierce electric sparks wandered around the feathers standing like sharp knives. An instant [Thunderbolt] move pierced the stagnant air before it in just a moment.
"Articuno, Ice Beam."
Looking at the surging current almost hitting his face, Hakuya dared not slack off at all, directly commanding Articuno to intercept with her most familiar Ice-type move.
"Bang—!!!"
Ice and electric attacks collided in mid-air. The violent explosion, accompanied by splashing frost and electric sparks, raised wave-like surging air currents sweeping around.
If Hakuya hadn't asked Gardevoir to shield the surroundings with psychic powers in advance, just the duel of moves between these two Legendary bird Pokémon would have completely turned this Valley Windworks into ruins under the energy bombardment.
"Phew~ Such terrifying power~"
Smelling the burnt air scorched by lightning, Irida exclaimed subconsciously.
And Mars, paralyzed on the ground, also had burning eyes. The massive, voluptuous snow globes on her chest trembled slightly, vividly demonstrating the unrest in her heart at this moment.
Although belonging to the same Three Legendary Birds with similar levels, with the Trainer's command and equipped with Elf Attributes, Articuno gained the upper hand after just a few moves. Her still gorgeous ice-blue body, compared to the wretched opponent, highlighted her beautiful figure even more.
However, unlike the gentle and graceful Articuno, Zapdos, as an Electric-type, was obviously much more arrogant and irritable. Although she had acknowledged the strength of the Trainer and opponent before her, her noble pride didn't allow her to be easily defeated and captured here.
"Roar-zap~"
Placed amidst sky-filling thunder, Zapdos roaring to the sky was truly like a god controlling lightning. Her whole body was bathed in jumping electric light. A spiderweb-like [Thunderbolt] attacked Articuno before her at this moment.
Seeing this, Hakuya knew the moment of decision had arrived.
For such an arrogant Pokémon, the best way to make her submit was to defeat her uprightly in a crushing manner, branding her with his mark.
"Articuno, use Brave Bird."
[Brave Bird: The user tucks in its wings and charges from a low altitude. This also damages the user quite a lot.]
"?"
Mars widened her crimson beautiful eyes instantly.
Not continuing the remote move bombardment, but choosing to use the Flying-type [Brave Bird] to attack the opponent in the Thunderbolt current net... this looked like a wrong decision no matter how she looked at it.
But whether it was Hakuya before her, or Articuno shuttling through the currents, they trusted each other unconditionally. The power of connected hearts and the powerful confidence radiating from the inside out made this red-haired beauty lost in thought.
"Cooo-eee~"
At this moment, quickly dodging dozens of lightning bolts shot out like cannonballs, Articuno's body plated with blue-red flames accelerated suddenly.
Even though the biting cold wind wrapped behind raged and whistled, trying desperately to catch up, it could only watch helplessly as she rushed to the opponent first.
[Lightning Speed (Red): Increases the usage speed of all type moves by 30%!]
"Roar-zap~"
Locked by the surging cold current, a strong sense of crisis forced Zapdos to flap its wings crazily, preparing to avoid the edge temporarily.
But the raging freezing snow had completely suppressed her high-pitched cry.
Using [Brave Bird] to accelerate and approach, Articuno's eyes were cold, forcibly interrupting the move's progress.
As those pair of crystal-blue wings unfolded against the sky curtain, the fierce gale unique to [Blizzard] crashed down, completely wrapping the opponent preparing to flee.
Countless diamond-shaped ice crystals pierced the airflow. The ice pellets wrapped by the whistling cold wind formed a huge silvery-white tornado, cutting the entire sky into fragmented ice-blue prisms.
[Blade of Ice and Snow (Rainbow): Increases the power of all Ice-type moves by 50%!]
"Roar-zap~"
The moment she was about to lose combat capability, the wailing Zapdos was hit by a thrown red and white Poké Ball.
"Master, is it really okay to let them go back?"
After Hakuya successfully captured Zapdos, Irida looked at the Team Galactic crowd evacuating from the power plant, blinking her beautiful eyes and asking softly.
"It doesn't matter; our goal is pretty much achieved."
Hakuya rubbed Irida's beautiful hair, laughing softly.
Before leaving, he specially left a contact method.
If the red-haired beauty Mars sincerely defected, then he would have planted an undercover agent in Team Galactic, able to monitor their movements in real-time.
And failure would also be harmless. After all, he just grasped a lot of information about Team Galactic's actions and could determine their future plans pretty much. He was quite good at entrapment.
Besides, this trip to the Floaroma Town power plant was full of harvest—capturing the Legendary Pokémon Zapdos was much stronger than so-called Magnemite or Galvantula. Let alone electricity for the farm for a year, it probably wouldn't run out in this lifetime.
Mmm... wait until I capture a Moltres too; I can even fly with three birds together.
Hakuya nodded secretly, inevitably starting to imagine.
"Commander Mars, when we go back... how should we report this operation to Boss Cyrus?"
"Report truthfully."
Walking on the road back to Team Galactic Headquarters, Mars turned her head to look at the female subordinate asking carefully beside her, replying indifferently.
Because everyone else present was knocked out by Hakuya and Irida when she was threatened to tell Team Galactic's plan just now, she wasn't worried about the risk of leakage.
The result of reporting truthfully was nothing more than the electricity theft operation being stopped by Zapdos and two Trainers.
However...
Mars exhaled a long breath, recalling the scene in the power plant just now.
Whether it was the black-haired youth looking down at her from above after defeating her Purugly, as if he could easily take her life at any time, or later shielding her in front of him, defeating that Legendary Pokémon Zapdos cleanly, and finally successfully capturing it...
The combined impact of the two was truly too strong, making her heart tremble inexplicably.
Mmm... seem to like it a bit...
If he could be a bit rougher, it would be even better.
Unknowingly entering a strange state, Mars patted her rosy cheeks, trying hard to calm herself down.
Although she didn't understand why that black-haired youth deliberately let her go, given her current situation, she didn't have a strong sense of belonging to Team Galactic itself. Plus, having leaked many plans just now, continuing to aid the tyrant didn't seem to make much sense.
Might as well...
Mars rubbed the uniform collar that still retained residual warmth, her jade face flushed.
After a while, she looked at the extra contact method on her communicator, struggled for a while, and then made up her mind.