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Zapdos fell rapidly from the sky like a meteor crashing to earth.

Its entire body was covered with wounds, and half of its wings remained frozen solid. This was from an Ice Punch that Zeraora had managed to land after Zapdos was struck by the Spiral Golden Aura Shuriken.

It was also what had knocked Zapdos out of the sky entirely.

Looking at the battered Zapdos, Chris couldn't help but recall how he had been defeated by this same legendary bird before.

Before this battle against Zapdos, Garchomp had been the only Pokemon that could resist Electric-type damage, while his other Pokemon were knocked out in a single hit. Steelix's massive size made it too large a target, and the distance between lightning strikes was too small for it to be useful at all.

That previous fight had been nothing short of devastating.

Mega Gardevoir's Teleport tactics had also proven ineffective back then. Zapdos's area-of-effect thunder attacks made Chris's teleportation strategies useless.

Now, with Zeraora on his team, Greninja could obtain Zeraora's Volt Absorb ability through Role Play.

In such an open battlefield, it was much easier to outmaneuver Zapdos like this.

"Once I capture Zapdos, I'll officially begin my legendary hunting plan," Chris thought to himself.

Chris had always harbored a specific plan and ambition. When he could defeat and capture a legendary Pokemon, he would use that legendary Pokemon to help capture other legendary Pokemon. Once he had collected six legendary Pokemon, he would then challenge the truly powerful legendary Pokemon.

Just like now.

Chris could already envision the scene when he would command six legendary Pokemon to challenge Rayquaza.

"Zaaap!" The falling Zapdos suddenly let out a low growl, and a bolt of lightning burst forth from its long, sharp beak.

The lightning moved with incredible speed, like a golden needle. The target of the attack was not any Pokemon, but Chris himself - the Trainer.

Capture the leader first; even Pokemon understood this basic strategy.

But this lightning bolt wasn't enough to truly threaten Chris.

Mega Gardevoir's attention had been focused on Chris the entire time, using Future Sight to predict danger. At the moment the thunder approached, it teleported Chris a hundred meters away to safety.

The concentrated spark only blasted a two-meter crater where Chris had been standing.

When Chris regained his bearings, all he could see were the two golden talons of Zapdos as it plunged into a circular spatial portal.

It had escaped.

Clearly, it hadn't been trying to launch a sneak attack on Chris, but rather to prevent Mega Gardevoir from stopping its retreat.

"So cowardly?" Chris raised his eyebrows. Even though he had battled these Pokemon so fiercely, he had actually only engaged them for one round of attacks.

Legendary Pokemon were far superior to ordinary Pokemon in terms of stamina and endurance, and this combination of attacks could have knocked out half of its health at most. From beginning to end, Zapdos had only used the initial Thunder Wave and this final Thunderbolt.

Since Thunder-type moves didn't work, why hadn't it tried Flying-type moves instead?

"Can you pursue it?" Chris asked Mega Gardevoir.

Mega Gardevoir immediately raised its hand and teleported Chris to the location where Zapdos had vanished. It brushed its hands over the space that had returned to calm, but could only shake its head slightly in the end.

"Gardevoir... (Beyond that space lies a layer of turbulent currents. I can no longer lock onto its position)," it explained telepathically.

"I see..." Chris frowned slightly.

A rare opportunity to capture Zapdos, but it had managed to escape.

It seemed that his victory celebrations in the future should wait until after achieving real victory!

However, it didn't matter much. Legendary Pokemon were difficult to find in reality, but in certain regions and special locations, there were plenty of places and opportunities to encounter legendary Pokemon.

It was just Zapdos; it didn't matter if he couldn't capture this particular one.

Moreover, this Zapdos possessed spatial abilities, so its escape was quite understandable.

"Forget it," Chris said, taking out several Poke Balls to recall his Pokemon, leaving only Gardevoir outside.

"By the way, can you travel through space?" Chris suddenly asked Gardevoir. Since Zapdos, whose spatial control abilities were weaker than Gardevoir's, could travel through space, there was no reason why Gardevoir couldn't do the same.

"Garde... (I would need coordinates)," it replied.

"That is to say, if you recorded the coordinates of Green Valley Gym, you could send me back to that gym at any time?" Chris's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Gardevoir... (I'm not sure about the distance from Green Valley Gym. If it's too far away, my psychic energy might not be sufficient to support long-distance travel through spatial rifts...)," Gardevoir explained carefully.

"I see..." Chris understood now. No wonder Professor Theodore had specifically traveled to the Mayan Forest in person. Otherwise, if there had been a Pokemon proficient in spatial abilities available, he probably could have come here directly from Dragon University.

As they descended from the sky, Theodore immediately approached them.

He widened his eyes and looked Chris up and down very carefully. This was the third time he had been forced to reassess Chris's capabilities.

A year had passed, and Chris's growth had far exceeded his expectations and imagination.

"Are you really Chris?" Theodore asked in disbelief.

"Who else would I be?" Chris replied with a smile.

"I remember that a year ago, your strength could at most compete with a Gym Leader, but now that a year has passed, you already possess strength comparable to an Elite Four member. This rate of improvement..."

"My evaluation is simply: terrifying," Theodore said with complete seriousness.

Throughout history, he had never seen more than a few people who could possess such frightening growth potential.

One year from novice trainer to gym-level trainer, another year from gym-level trainer to Elite-level trainer. If Chris was given another year, wouldn't he become Champion-level?

Chris smiled. It wasn't just Theodore who expressed surprise at the speed of his strength improvement.

Even experienced trainers would be amazed by the sudden power increases of his Pokemon after not seeing them for a while.

There was no helping it - accelerated training methods worked incredibly fast!

"Let's hurry up and capture those Pokemon that are still under hypnosis, so we can leave before other trainers arrive to investigate," Chris said, looking up toward the direction of the city. Not far away, Bronzong and Metagross were watching them anxiously.

Their Zapdos leader hadn't taken them along when it fled.

Sensing Chris's gaze, the two Pokemon immediately flew toward the town, trying to hide.

Of course, this could only be wishful thinking. Under the suppression of Gardevoir's overwhelmingly powerful psychic abilities, no matter how they tried to hide, there was no way to escape detection.

They were easily found, defeated, and captured by Chris.

The levels of these two Pokemon were quite high - both were level 70.

Without this level of strength, it would have been impossible for them to control hundreds of level 50 Electric-type Pokemon.

Chris wasn't particularly interested in training them extensively, but they could be stored in his PC storage system. Perhaps someday they would prove useful.