Fletchling's excitement did not last long.
The moment it looked back and saw that the Aura Sphere, which had originally been flying straight ahead, had instantly changed direction to follow its own turn, every bit of confidence and arrogance it had just been feeling shattered on the spot.
Panicking, it hurriedly changed its flight angle again.
But no matter how it altered its flight path, the Aura Sphere stayed right on its tail.
Very quickly, Fletchling was caught by the rapidly approaching Aura Sphere. Its vision was swallowed by blue light, and then,
Boom!
A huge explosion thundered across the sky, and a brilliant blue flash burst at the horizon.
Fletchling was knocked unconscious in a single hit. Smoke rose from its body as it dropped straight toward the ground.
"Latias!" Ash called out.
Latias, who had remained hidden in the sky the entire time, understood instantly. She immediately used Psychic to catch the falling Fletchling, which was unconscious and had entered a near-death suspended state.
Perhaps it was because of a special law Arceus had built into the world when it was created.
In reality, when a Pokémon suffered a fatal injury for the first time, it did not die immediately. Instead, it entered a deathlike state right on the edge of dying.
Only if it suffered another fatal injury after entering that state would it truly die.
Because of that, in most real-world capture battles, Trainers did not need to specifically send out a Pokémon that knew False Swipe just to leave the opponent barely hanging on.
Simply knocking the target out, or dropping it into that near-death state before capturing it, was usually much more convenient.
In fact, even if a Trainer was stuck in a brutal environment with scarce resources and little medical support, they still did not have to worry too much about a Pokémon's safety.
As long as the Pokémon in that near-death state was kept from taking any more damage, it could recover on its own.
Latias used Teleport and reappeared in front of Ash and Froakie, bringing the defeated Fletchling with her.
With its eyes spiraling in circles, Fletchling floated there limply under Latias's control, completely at the mercy of however she chose to move it.
Ash turned, took a Potion spray from his backpack, and gave Fletchling some basic treatment. Then he pulled out a standard Poké Ball and completed the capture.
Fletchling's final evolution was Talonflame, whose colors were mainly red and white, so a regular Poké Ball suited it pretty well.
With that done, all that remained was to wait for Fletchling to recover on its own.
The moment Ash put away Fletchling's Poké Ball, Latias drifted over the instant she was free and affectionately circled around him once. Then she poked her fluffy head out from behind him and rubbed her face back and forth against his cheek.
"Haha, that tickles, Latias!"
Feeling Latias cling to him so affectionately, Ash grinned and started rubbing and kneading her soft, fluffy body with both hands.
His tired body relaxed too, leaning back against Latias's soft neck. He lowered his face close to her forehead and took a deep breath, drawing in Latias's distinct scent.
The whole scene looked exactly like a cat owner cuddling, petting, and huffing their favorite cat, except his "cat" was a little special.
Speaking of petting cats, in his previous life Ash had mostly only petted the orange tabby people kept at home. Once in a while, he would watch videos online of people relaxing by petting fluffy golden cats, and back then he had been crazy jealous.
Now the tables had completely turned. He was the one people would envy.
Not only could he pet Pokémon, creatures that had existed only in fantasy in his old world, he could even casually rub and cuddle a Legendary Pokémon like Latias.
And in the future, he might even get the chance to pet the cool big cat Zeraora, or a sleek black Rayquaza.
Maybe he could even raise one himself.
Just imagining it was enough to make anybody insanely jealous.
After savoring that thought for a moment, Ash took out his phone and checked the time.
[12:15]
The time he had arranged with Serena had already passed.
A trace of surprise rose in his heart. Serena had not called him, which probably meant something had happened.
At that thought, Ash quickly called Froakie back onto his shoulder. Then he bent his legs and lightly jumped onto Latias's back.
Wrapping both arms around Latias's warm, soft neck, he leaned against her to steady himself.
"Please, Latias! Let's go meet up with Serena!"
Latias nodded, used Teleport, and vanished from the spot in an instant.
Over on Serena's side, Ash had only just arrived when he walked into what looked like a straight-up cartoon beatdown...
Ahem, more accurately, Serena was directing the two Ralts to pummel James's Inkay, while Pikachu was hammering Wobbuffet.
It looked like Clemont had caught a Dedenne, and at the moment he was commanding Dedenne to chase down Meowth.
No wonder nobody had called him when the time came. Team Rocket had shown up and ambushed them at just the wrong moment.
By then, the battle between the two sides was already reaching its final stage.
"Pika, chu!!!"
With Pikachu's furious cry, dazzling lightning surged upward and painted the sky a brilliant gold. Thunderbolt gathered up Dedenne's Thunder Shock along the way, then twisted together with the crimson Mystical Fire released by the two Ralts, transforming into a spiraling golden fire dragon that swallowed Team Rocket whole and blasted them into the clouds.
"We're blasting off again!"
As the voices and figures faded farther and farther away, Ash immediately heard the notification that the enhancement mission had been completed.
[Mission complete... enhancing... enhancement complete.]
The voice surprised Ash, but it also made him relax.
Thank goodness, he had gotten here just in time and personally witnessed the moment Ralts defeated Inkay.
Otherwise, if the system had decided it did not count because he was not present, then he would have had to wait until Team Rocket respawned again.
Ash turned his gaze toward the Shiny Ralts.
[Pokémon]: Shiny Ralts (Female)
[Type]: Psychic / Fairy
[Ability]: Telepathy I (reads allied attacks and avoids damage from them; 30% chance to read enemy attacks and evade them)
...
After a whole morning apart, Shiny Ralts had only gained a single level.
How should he put it?
For an ordinary level 11 Pokémon, that would already be impressive.
But this one had perfect IVs and also knew Mystical Fire, a move with decent power that also countered both Bug-types and Grass-types.
Logically, she should not have gained so little.
It looked like he would need to ask about that later.
His gaze shifted downward.
When he saw the completely empty Held Item slot for both Ralts, Ash suddenly remembered that.
Things had been way too rushed when he caught them last night, and the surprise from Shiny Ralts had been so overwhelming that joy had completely taken over his common sense...
So he had forgotten.
Now that he had noticed it, of course he needed to fix that.
Ash actually had items in his backpack that both of them could use, Twisted Spoon and Fairy Feather.
Twisted Spoon boosted the power of Psychic-type moves by 20%.
Fairy Feather was the Fairy-type boosting item added in Scarlet and Violet, and its effect was boosting the power of Fairy-type moves by 20%.
As for why he was not using a Gardevoirite?
The answer was simple. Ash actually did have one.
He just had not brought it with him, because before coming here, he had never expected there to be any chance of catching a Gardevoir.
For now, these two would do.
Once they evolved, then next time he went back, or the next time he transferred Pokémon, he could just have one of the Pokémon in a Poké Ball bring it over.