Licked for almost four minutes.
Baimu finally gained freedom—along with a giant tag-along. Using its left mouth to clamp onto his clothes, and whenever it's slightly apart, it would call out.
This led to him being chased with teasing eyes by the Meteor People and some highly intelligent Dragon-type Pokémon wherever he went.
"Feels like a return to old times."
He sighed, feeling like a week's effort to foster the independent nature of Hydreigon had all gone to waste.
No way around it.
Who would've thought such an event would suddenly occur?
Baimu again approached a group of Rocket Team Members, having scouted the Rocket Team's airship earlier without discovering anything interesting.
Rocket backpack?
It's almost like a suicide tool, with no real value to keep.
So, after hearing Porygon had browsed most documents and systems in the Rocket Team's airship, he descended and began interrogating Rocket Team Members.
Especially Pusen and Bashu.
He intentionally woke them in turn, inquiring about Super Stone and Key Stone details.
Like how many Key Stones and Super Stones the Rocket Team had obtained, where they were stored, and their current sources.
The information gathered was fragmented, with Pusen revealing relatively more and Bashu, the deserter, having a tougher mouth.
Were it not for other Meteor People around, Baimu actually wanted to try seeing if knocking out all his teeth would make him tougher.
After learning some intelligence, he regrettably found he couldn't privately seize the Key Stone from the latter.
First, it had been exposed to so many people, and later Officer Jenny would surely gather evidence from the airship's records and monitoring, definitely not pretending not to see.
Second, this was indeed snatched from some unfortunate person, belonging to stolen goods.
If it were ownerless, he might try having Porygon modify the monitoring footage, cooperating inside and out and secretly hiding it; with an owner… using it felt more inhibiting.
Recently, Baimu's moral standing improved significantly, and regarding mental forces, he hoped to keep them pure.
Otherwise, each Super Evolution afterwards would easily remind him of some unlucky child crying over lost Key Stone, feeling somewhat uncomfortable inside.
After all, he would have access to it in the future; the animation doesn't feature the special episode's multiple Key Stones enabling multiple Super Evolutions setup, making it unnecessary to trouble himself.
But trying it out still piqued his interest.
"Grandpa Qing Liu, can you let me try Super Evolving with the Key Stone?"
Baimu straightforwardly asked.
Elder Qing Liu paused, then laughed, "Couldn't resist after seeing the battle earlier? Haha! I understand! When I was young, seeing Super Evolutions, I felt equally excited…"
As he spoke, the elder took a badge-embedded Key Stone from a pile of stolen goods, "The Steelix Evolution Stone is on that Steelix, just find a way to pry it off!"
"No need, I have a Super Stone here, and the Super Evolution target isn't Steelix."
Baimu waved and accepted the Key Stone, pointing to the nearby Aggron.
The first Super Evolution.
No matter what, it should be entrusted to his ace!
"Sa-saw?"
Hydreigon curiously leaned over, puzzled by the small Key Stone.
"This thing is extraordinary; you'll understand soon."
Baimu smiled at it, forcibly removing its mouth clinging to his clothes, "Step back, give me a wide space, Aggron! Come over!"
"Roar?"
Aggron approached confusedly.
Hydreigon glanced at the other, instinctively wanting to refuse, but the surrounding atmosphere indicated the Trainer was conducting serious matters, so it reluctantly hung its head, flying out a certain distance.
Baimu held the badge, hand slowly placing on the Key Stone.
Recalling most Trainers enabling Pokémon's Super Evolution had similar touch movements in the animation…
In an instant.
Upon skin contact with the Key Stone, a mysterious resonance flooded his mind, instinctively drawing his gaze to Aggron, which was also looking over.
As their gazes met, the Key Stone in his hand and the Super Stone within Aggron's left cavity quickly engaged, emitting a faint light like twinkling stars.
"Wow! Such response right from the start?"
Elder Qing Liu watched in disbelief, then said, "The Key Stone and Super Stone lighting up together signifies your bond has been verified by them, earning the threshold for Super Evolution. The next stage is to release your hand from the Key Stone."
"Alright."
Baimu nodded slightly, understanding Elder Qing Liu was guiding him, chose to comply without hesitation.
Following his fingers' withdrawal from the Key Stone, the magical resonance diminished instantly but remained in abundance within his heart, engraving a profound shadow therein.
"Close your eyes, Pokémon should close its eyes too."
Under Elder Qing Liu's guidance, Baimu and Aggron gently closed their eyes.
"Don't touch, don't speak; can you sense each other's presence now? Respond by nodding."
Both nodded.
In the utterly dark setting, the other's figure distinctly appeared beside him.
"Good, the secret of Super Evolution is magnifying the sensation of the other's presence infinitely, imagining a mental chain linking you both; this requires your joint effort, understand?"