"Vire!!"
Electivire rushed toward Metagross at full speed, its fist wrapped in incandescent energy.
Seeing Electivire charging in, Metagross's eyes flashed blue, and a powerful burst of psychic energy erupted outward, binding Electivire in place.
"Discharge!"
At the command, Electivire immediately began discharging, releasing the current stored in its body and attacking Metagross's position indiscriminately. Several arcs of electricity struck Metagross.
Metagross reluctantly flung Electivire away, then opened its mouth as an orange ball of light began condensing inside it.
"Hyper Beam!" Gary was shocked. Hyper Beam was part of Metagross's natural move pool, but it normally required a Metagross to reach a very high level before awakening it.
Electivire got back up, and when it saw the orange light gathering in Metagross's mouth, it grinned.
Gary felt the same way. Although Metagross's brain was comparable to a supercomputer, that only meant it had powerful processing ability—its actual battle sense wasn't all that sharp.
"Electivire, rush in and use Ion Deluge," Gary ordered.
Electivire ran toward Metagross, releasing a layer of blue electrical energy around its body.
"Meta?"
Though Metagross was puzzled by Electivire's behavior, it didn't hold back the fully charged Hyper Beam.
Biu!
The orange beam fired, striking Electivire dead-on.
Seeing Electivire take the Hyper Beam directly, a smug look crossed Metagross's face—but very quickly, that smugness transferred straight onto Electivire's face instead.
Electivire looked back at Metagross with a self-satisfied grin. The blue electrical field around its body had absorbed the Hyper Beam's energy, channeling it inward. Electivire was now supercharged, the voltage in its body climbing rapidly.
The twin tails on its head crackled with golden electricity.
"Dynamic Punch!" Gary ordered.
Swoosh!!
Golden light exploded outward!
Electivire became a golden flash, closing the distance to Metagross in an instant. By the time Metagross tried to respond with Psychic, Electivire's fist had already arrived, slamming into it head-on.
Clang!!!
Bang!!
Metagross's body was driven back ten meters, its legs gouging four long scratches into the rock. Even with its Steel typing, Dynamic Punch still managed to deal considerable damage.
And after taking the Dynamic Punch, Metagross lived up to expectations—it fell into confusion.
"Perfect. Use Thunder and finish Metagross off," Gary ordered.
"Vire!"
Electivire's body radiated golden electrical energy. Bolts of lightning shot high into the sky, then came crashing back down onto Metagross.
Trapped in its confusion, Metagross was completely unable to resist. After enduring seven or eight consecutive lightning strikes, it finally collapsed from exhaustion.
"Go, Poké Ball!"
Gary threw the Poké Ball he'd had ready in his hand.
Bang!
The Poké Ball struck Metagross's body and bounced off, opening up and drawing Metagross inside.
The ball fell to the ground, wobbled slightly a few times, and then went still. The capture was successful.
Gary walked over, picked up the Poké Ball, and checked Metagross's data.
[Pokémon: Metagross (Shiny)]
[Type: Steel, Psychic]
[Level: 60]
[Potential: Champion]
[Ability: Clear Body (This Pokémon's stats cannot be lowered by the opponent's moves or abilities.)]
[Moves: Tackle, Confusion, Bullet Punch, Zen Headbutt, Magnet Rise, Flash Cannon, Take Down, Psychic, Meteor Mash, Hyper Beam.]
[TM Moves: Gyro Ball.]
[Friendship: 85 (max value 255)]
This Metagross really had awakened Hyper Beam early, and it had even learned Gyro Ball. Its friendship was a bit low, but that didn't matter.
"Time to head back to town."
Gary recalled Electivire and rode Magnezone back to the local Pokémon Center.
At the Pokémon Center, Gary handed Electivire, Magnezone, and Metagross over to Nurse Joy for treatment.
"Nurse Joy, thank you for your help."
With the capture of this differently colored Metagross, Gary had now caught nine Shiny Pokémon. He only needed one more to complete the system's mission of capturing ten Shiny Pokémon.
When his Pokémon were done being treated, Gary went to the counter to collect them. Nurse Joy asked, "Did you capture that Metagross?"
"Yes."
Gary didn't deny it. After all, Joy would have seen exactly which Pokémon was inside the Poké Ball during treatment.
"It's nothing, really—I just didn't expect someone so young to be able to catch that Metagross. You're clearly no ordinary Trainer," Joy said.
"It's not a big deal. I've only won the League Conference Championship a few times," Gary said calmly.
"A League Conference Champion? That's no small feat," Joy said in surprise.
"Haha."
Gary smiled. You looked down on me before. Now you know what I'm capable of.
After getting his Pokémon back, Gary decided his next destination would be the Gracidea Flower Fields.
The flower fields lay north of Floaroma Town. Reaching them required passing through Eterna Forest—though alternatively, you could take a boat from Floaroma Town and go around by water.
Gary planned to travel at a leisurely pace. He'd be passing by Eterna City anyway, so he could challenge the official Gym there along the way.
To participate in the Lily of the Valley Conference, he needed to collect Badges from the official Gyms of the Sinnoh region, and the Eterna Gym was one of them.
According to the games' progression, it was the second Gym players were meant to challenge. Gary was also curious what kind of Gym mission the system would issue now that he was challenging Gyms in the Sinnoh region.
After resting for a night in town, he retraced his route the next day and headed south. As long as he kept going south, he would reach Eterna City.
It took a day and a half before Gary finally arrived in Eterna City.
After handing Magnezone over to Nurse Joy and seeing that it was still early, Gary went straight to the Gym.
Eterna City was a city with a long history, and the Eterna Gym itself was very old.
When Gary arrived at the Eterna Gym, he saw that one of its walls was completely covered in creeping vines—clearly something the Gym Leader, Gardenia, had cultivated intentionally.
Gardenia was a Gym Leader who specialized in Grass-type Pokémon. She was also something of a ruthless operator—the first person to ever sweet-talk a Pokémon away from the Team Rocket trio.
James's Cacnea was a Grass-type Pokémon with great potential and talent, which was exactly why Gardenia had set her sights on it.
Although James was a member of Team Rocket, he was kind-hearted. As long as something was good for his Pokémon, he would do it without hesitation—even if it meant giving that Pokémon away to someone else. In that respect, even Ash couldn't compare to James.
The system hadn't issued a mission yet. Ever since he'd started challenging the Frontier, missions were only released right before the battle began.
"Handsome boy, what are you doing over here?" A voice suddenly came from behind Gary.