Chapter 20: Capturing Fletchling, the Diligent and Ambitious Team Rocket!

Fletchling's excitement didn't last long.

When he turned his head and saw the wave missile that had been charging straight ahead, the instant it changed direction to follow him, his confidence and arrogance shattered to pieces.

Panicked, he hurriedly altered his flight angle again.

But no matter how he changed his flight path, the wave missile kept right behind him.

Very quickly!

Fletchling was caught up by the rapidly approaching wave missile, and the world before his eyes was engulfed entirely in blue!

Boom!

A massive explosion roared through the sky, and a dazzling blue flash burst at the horizon!

With a single blow, Fletchling lost consciousness, its body billowing white smoke as it fell straight toward the ground.

"Latias!" Ash called out,

Latias, who had been hidden in the sky, instantly understood, released a burst of telekinetic force, and caught the unconscious, feigning-death Fletchling as it fell.

Perhaps it's a special rule Arceus added when creating the world.

In reality, when a Pokémon first receives fatal damage, it doesn't die outright but enters a near-death, feigned-death state.

Only after being in that feigned-death state and taking another fatal blow will it truly die.

Thanks to this, in most real battles, trainers don't need to send out Pokémon with finishing moves to whittle opponents down to low HP.

Knocking them out outright or forcing a feigned-death capture is often more convenient.

Even… even if a trainer is in a harsh, resource‑scarce environment lacking medical supplies, they need not worry about the Pokémon's safety,

as long as the feigned-death Pokémon receives no further harm, it can fully recover on its own.

Latias used Instant Teleportation, appearing before Ash and Froakie, along with the defeated Fletchling.

The Fletchling, its eyes resembling mosquito coils, was toyed with by Latias, floating before Ash and Froakie.

Ash turned, took a wound‑spray from his bag, quickly treated the Fletchling's injuries, then pulled out a Poké Ball to capture it,

Fletchling's final evolution is Braviary, whose body is primarily red and white, matching the Poké Ball perfectly.

After all that, they only need to wait for the Fletchling to recover on its own.

Seeing Ash store the Fletchling's Poké Ball, Latias seized the moment, floated forward, affectionately circled Ash, poked its furry head out from behind him, and nuzzled against the side of his face.

"Haha, that tickles, Latias!"

Feeling Latias's closeness, Ash, delighted, placed both hands on its fluffy body, groping and kneading it,

his somewhat weary body relaxed against Latias's soft neck, his nose pressed to its forehead, breathing deeply as Latias's unique scent filled his nostrils,

the scene felt very much like a cat‑owner petting and inhaling a cat, except this "cat" is a bit unusual!

Speaking of petting cats, in his past life Ash mostly petted his orange house cat, and occasionally watched foreign guys online stroke golden‑gradient cats for stress relief, feeling envious back then!

Now the tables have turned; he's the one being envied.

Now he can not only pet Pokémon that exist only in fantasy, but also freely squeeze the legendary Latias, getting up close and personal.

In the future he might even get to pet the handsome big cat Zeraora and the sleek black Rayquaza,

or even raise one himself,

just thinking about it makes one jealous to the point of disintegration,

After the sighs,

Ash pulled out his phone and glanced at the time,

【12:15】

The time he promised Serena has already passed.

He felt a slight surprise; Serena hadn't called, perhaps something happened!

Thinking of that, Ash quickly called Froakie back onto his shoulder, pushed off with his legs, leapt lightly, and jumped onto Latias's back,

His hands wrapped around Latias's warm, furry neck, his body leaning on Latias for stability.

"Please, Latias! Go meet Serena!"

Latias nodded, activated Instant Teleportation, and vanished from the spot in an instant.

On Serena's side,

【5】 Ash had just arrived and saw Chang Wei battling Lai Fu…

Ash just arrived, and as soon as he looked he saw Chang Wei beating Lai Fu…

Ahem, it's Serena commanding two Lurantis to violently attack Xiao Cilang's Hao La Squid, and Pikachu is beating Guoran Weng!

Clemont seems to have captured a Dingdong Mouse,

and is now directing the Dingdong Mouse to chase Meow Meow,

No wonder Serena didn't call when the time came; they happened to run into a Team Rocket ambush,

by now the battle between the two sides had entered its final stage,

"Pika~chu!!!"

Accompanied by Pikachu's angry shout,

A dazzling bolt of lightning rose, turning the sky golden; Ten‑Million‑Volt absorbed the Dingdong Mouse's electric shock along the way and intertwined with the crimson magical flames released by the two Lurantis, forming a striking golden fire‑dragon vortex that swallowed Team Rocket and sent them soaring into the clouds!

"What an annoying feeling~"

As the voice and the people grew farther away, a reinforcement‑mission‑complete alert rang in Ash's ears,

【Mission Complete... Reinforcing... Reinforcement Complete】

The sound surprised Ash, but also relieved him.

Fortunately he arrived just in time to witness Lurantis defeating Hao La Squid.

Otherwise, the system would deem him absent and his actions wouldn't count, forcing him to wait for the next Team Rocket respawn.

His gaze fell on the differently‑colored Lurantis,

【Pokémon】：（Shiny）Ralts（♀）

【Attribute】：Psychic+Fairy

【Trait】：Telepathy1（reads our attack, and dodges its move damage, 30% chance to read enemy attack and dodge）

【Level】：lv12

【Skill】：……、

【Individual】：6v

【Base Stats】：198

【Held Item】：None

……

Not seen for a morning, Shiny Ralts actually only leveled up once,

This result... How to put it?

For an ordinary level 11 Pokémon, it's already quite impressive,

But his is 6v, also mastering mid-high power, while the magic flame counters Bug and Grass types,

Logically, it shouldn't have only increased this much,

Looks like we need to ask about this later,

Gaze lowered,

Seeing that the two Ralts' held item slots were empty, Ash then remembered this,

It was really because we caught them too hastily last night, plus the surprise brought by the shiny Ralts was too great, reason was replaced by surprise and happiness... forgot,

Now that we've discovered it, we should of course make up for it,

Ash's backpack has two items usable by Pokémon: a Bent Spoon and a Fairy Feather,

The Bent Spoon boosts Psychic move power by 20%,

The Fairy Feather is a newly added Fairy-type boosting item in Scarlet/Violet, its effect is to boost Fairy move power by 20%,

As for why not Gardevoir's Mega Stone?

All I can say is, Ash actually has one, but unfortunately I didn't think of the possibility of catching Gardevoir before coming, so I didn't bring it,

For now, let's just make do with these two,

Once they evolve, next time we go back, or when we send over Pokémon, let the Pokémon in the Poké Ball help bring it over.