Lightning Island.
In the collection room, Lawrence was standing in front of a cage that was made from special steel. It was much stronger than diamond and could withstand high temperatures.
He grabbed a small rod, reached out his hand into the cage, and gently prodded the Moltres, who was trapped inside.
Moltres was already awake, but his body was still weak after failing to fend off Team Aqua's attacks. Earlier, he had injected a strong sedative into Moltres while he was passed out.
Moltres snapped at his hand with his beak, causing him to pull back his hand. He turned toward him and sprayed fire from his mouth. The fire impacted the cage and scattered away.
"Hmph! Why don't you stay quiet!"
He took a few steps back from the cage and asked Weis to restrain the Moltres. Purple lightning flickered inside the cage and struck the Moltres, paralyzing him.
Shriek!
Moltres slumped on the floor, his eyes staring at him angrily.
"What is it, Matt? Can't you see I'm quite busy here?"
He walked to the table and placed the small rod on the tray. He then put his hands behind his back in a gentlemanly manner while staring at the Moltres in the cage.
He wasn't in a hurry to turn him into a specimen. He wanted to gather all three legendary birds first before turning them into one single collection. He got excited just by thinking about it.
Matt strode forward and stopped beside him.
"Mr. Lawrence, we have encountered some trouble. Zapdos is much stronger than we thought..."
"Wait a minute!"
He cut him off, raising his hand.
"I have taken great risk to absorb the lightning on Lightning Island. Are you telling me you can't catch him?"
Matt hurriedly replied.
"We are truly sorry, Mr. Lawrence. It's just that his Electric-type attack is too strong for us. If we want to catch him in a short time, we need your help."
He pondered for a moment and nodded.
"Okay. So what do you need?"
Hearing that, Matt finally smiled and said.
"Thank you, Mr. Lawrence. I need to borrow your Dark Ball and Moltres."
Dark Ball Matt mentioned was a special kind of Pokeball made by one of his companies. It was an emerging Pokeball technology after obtaining a part of the Master Ball information.
Dark Ball was able to bring under control Pokemon that already belonged to a trainer, as well as rendering it utterly devoid of its free will.
However, the Pokemon captured using Dark Ball became corrupted and would lose control of their emotions when fighting. Their vitality would also be severely overdrawn once they stayed inside the Dark Ball for a long time.
He had tried using Dark Ball before. To be honest, he wasn't interested in it very much. He once captured a Tyranitar back then. It soon died in less than a year due to the immense strain. Perhaps only a legendary Pokemon like Moltres could handle the strain of the Dark Ball.
Moreover, he didn't care about the safety of Moltres anymore. The only thing that mattered was his soon-to-be collections.
"Weis."
He called out.
"Yes, Master Lawrence."
Weis's voice rang throughout the room.
"Please send me the Dark Ball in my safe. Also, prepare a small amount of sedative."
"Yes, Master Lawrence.
After Weis responded, the voice disappeared. The two waited in the collection room for about a few moments when the door finally opened. A small drone came flying into the room as they stood up.
A black Pokeball, a syringe, and a small bottle filled with yellow liquid lay on top of it.
He grabbed the syringe and the bottle and told Matt to take the black Pokeball.
The drone slowly flew toward Matt and stopped in front of him.
Without any hesitation, he reached out and picked up the black Pokeball. He found that it was much heavier than the regular Pokeball. A purple line separated it in half with a small purple button at the center.
After playing with the Dark Ball for a while, he walked toward the cage, where Lawrence had just finished injecting the sedative into Moltres.
Inside the cage, Moltres lay down on the ground weakly. He could barely even move his head toward him.
The sedative injected by Lawrence earlier made him weak. The golden flames on his body had faded away, revealing his yellow plumage. Even his flaming head crest was barely burning.
Matt raised the Dark Ball and aimed it at the Moltres in the cage.
Moltres seemed to have sensed something as he burst into flames once more. He resisted the sedative effect and raised his head forcefully. His eyes stared at the weird-looking Pokeball. He felt a sense of threat coming from it.
Shriek!
He let out a piercing cry as he struggled to break from the cage. However, it was all a futile attempt.
Matt smiled and pressed the button on the Dark Ball. A black-light beam shot out from it and struck the still struggling Moltres.
The black-light beam quickly enveloped Moltres entire body. Suddenly, he fell silent. A trace of fear flickered in his eyes before they became blank as if he was lifeless.
After that, he merged with the black light as they returned to the Dark Ball in Matt's hands.
Beep!
The red light on Dark Bell flashed three times before it calmed down. Moltres had been successfully caught.
He calmly fastened the Dark Bell on his belt and turned toward Lawrence beside him.
"Thanks for your help, Mr. Lawrence. With Moltres, we will be able to catch the other legendary birds. I will deliver them to you soon."
Lawrence nodded, "Very well. I'll be waiting here."
After Matt got what he wanted, he said goodbye to Lawrence and left the collection room. While he was on his way back to the monitoring room, he was thinking about his next plan to capture that Zapdos.
He was best at using Water-type Pokemon. It seemed the only one that could withstand Zapdos Electric-type attacks was Swampert among his many Water-type Pokemon.
"Maybe I should get more Ground-type Pokemon to stop Zapdos and let Moltres attack him."
He murmured thoughtfully.
***
Ice Island. Somewhere in the frozen forest that occupied nearly half of the island.
Hisoka and his Pokemon were running through the forest. Weavile was in the front, clearing the path ahead for them. Meanwhile, Gardevoir followed him closely from behind.
"Damn! How long is she going to chase us."
He gritted his teeth as he hastened his run.
Hundreds of meters in the sky, two figures could be seen. It was Sigana and her Pokemon. She was still riding on Salamence's back. Only there was an Altaria flying next to her.
It was a Dragon/Flying-type Pokemon, just like her Salamence.
"Altaria, Dragon Pulse!"
"Salamence, Flamethrower!"
Under her order, a scorching hot firestorm fell from the sky and struck the ground. The high temperature of the fire instantly melted the ice in the surrounding area.
Followed by that, a purple light beam landed on the ground, causing a large explosion.
"What is going over there?"
At the beach, more than a dozen people who had just arrived on Ice Island stared at the explosion that was happening not far away from them.
"That's one powerful Flamethrower. Is someone fighting over there?"
"You guys want to take a look?"
"Let's go!"
A few of them quickly ran toward where the explosion occurred. They wanted to see what kind of Pokemon could unleash such a strong Fire-type attack on this cold and freezing island.
At this time, Hisoka was hiding behind a tree with his Pokemon. Thanks to Gardevoir, they were able to escape from Sigana's bombardment just now.
"Come out, Rhyperior!"
Before she could attack himself again, he quickly released his Rhyperior from his Pokeball.
As soon as Rhyperior hit the ground, he let out a loud roar full of joy. Aside from eating time, he always stayed inside his Pokeball. He rarely got the opportunity to play outside.