I may late but I'm still here. -Me
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"So Krystal, what is this so Mysterious Crystal?" Ash asked directly after fishing out his Pikachu out of the lake.
Since the water of this lake has the effect of healing Electric-type Pokémon, which is obviously helpful for a Legendary Electric-type like Zapdos, then this Mysterious Crystal must also be related to this lake.
Krystal told him boldly, "Then please come with me, I will show you guys."
She rowed a small boat and sent the group to the center of the lake, but then she opened a small hole at the bottom of the boat, where transparent glass was set up so that the people on the boat could see the scene in the water through it.
The lake was crystal clear, and everyone could clearly see that there was ruins in the center of the lake bottom! And in the center of the ruins was a lerge crystal that was emitting a faint blue light.
It looks very beautiful and shocking.
"That's the source of the power to heal Electric-type Pokémon! This is the so called Mysterious Crystal you were looking for, Ash!" Krystal introduced it to them, "The Electric-type Pokémon here were attracted by the current the Crystal and came here to have a look!"
"But why are there so many ruined things in the lake?" Brock didn't understand this part at all.
Of course such ruins were built by humans, but why are they in the lake now?
"It used to look like it was on the top of the mountain, but I don't know what happened to it. I theorized that this sank to the bottom of the lake together with the ruins because of being under bad conditions for hundreds of years!"
These treasures really need to be kept secret from the rest of human society, especially from people like Giovanni and his Team Rocket. No matter what kind of protection they are, it will be useless. Once they are targeted by people like Team Rocket, it will be a lot of trouble to protect them. Keeping them secret is the best way to deal with them.
But now, Team Rocket's Domino must have also known about this Crystal from somewhere, and she also knows about Zapdos!
Ash and his group went ashore once again, and when they turned around, they found that the color of the lake had turned darker.
"Nani!"
Using the power of his Aura, he dived into the bottom of the lake, only to find that a Tentacruel had swept away the Mysterious Crystal with its tentacles and was floating to the surface of the lake while they were leaving.
In that direction, on the other side of the lake, Domino came out, took the Crystal away, and proceeded to place it on a transparent device.
"Domino!" Ash was angry with his own overconfidence. His Aura had been sensing Team Rocket's aura, but he didn't think that Team Rocket would let their Water-type to poison the waters to distract them and steal the Crystal away from him.
There was a Water-type Pokémon in the water, but didn't expect it to be theif. He though that it was a Chinchou or a Lunturn because they were the only ones that could be in the water.
"Ash, what should we do now that they have the Crystal?"
Before Ash could make a judgment on the topic, the Electric-type Pokémon in the lake had already waded into the water and had surrounded Domino with her minions.
"Those Pokémon seem to be trying to snatch the Crystal back to where it rightfully belongs!" Brock understood the intentions of these Pokémon without needing to think much of it.
Ash nodded to Brock's words, "Pikachu, you go there too!"
The Electric-type Pokémon there, plus Ash's Pikachu, all used Electric-type attacks to hit Domino and her grunts. The amount of electricity was enough to turn a person into charcoal.
But Domino didn't care about this at all. Several Team Rocket minions actually pushed a machine out and completely absorbed most of the power!
After that, she no longer paid attention to the Pokémon there and started to deploy the next battle plan!
"Prepare for battle, the elite forces are driving Zapdos here!"
Hearing her voice, Krystals heart tightened, "That's very bad, Zapdos only comes here every time when his power is low!"
Ash also understood her point, "The Rockets sent out their elite troops to surround Zapdos, and then took advantage of the time when it was recovering from depletion of power to take it down. Therefore, they wanted to take away the Crystal and prevent Zapdos from being able to get away. Now there is no chance of recovery!"
Of course, this Mysterious Crystal itself is their main target!
In the eyes of the Rockets, this Crystal can obviously exert greater value than the current amount.
At this moment, a thundercloud suddenly appeared in the sky, which was exactly the same as the scene when Raikou first appeared infrint of him. This Legendary Bird of Thunder appeared to be carrying the very soul of the thunder!
Electric whips surged around him, and sparks flickered in the thunderclouds. It seemed that Zapdos was fine as of now without much trouble.
"This is Domino, Zapdos appeared in our vicinity!"
As Domino reported to the communicator she was wearing, the machine on her side had turned to Zapdos in the air!
Zapdos also noticed the changes in the lake water, and then cast his bright eyes on Domino. At this moment, she was holding a transparent container with the Crystal still being visible through the glass.
This is the bait they are using for Zapdos!
And sure enough, Zapdos was fooled because of the rage he was feeling. As the Thunder Bird, its first thought was to use a Thunderbolt to hit Team Rocket and especially Domino. However, all the electricity were absorbed by Team Rocket's machine.
In Ash's thought, Zapdos would be targeted and captured after absorbing all the electricity/energy in his body.
When he was on the Orange Islands before, the collector also used this method to capture all the Legendary Birds like Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.
Zapdos seemed to feel that the dignity of being a Legendary Pokémon was being taunted, so he released stronger electricity and hit the machine even more fiercely.
In the end, all that power disappeared without a trace!
Zapdos' Aura was obviously beginning to be sluggish, to the point where he still struggling to another attack towards the machine.
"Nooo!" Krystal felt something wrong with Zapdos!
"As expected, they all think the same! Electric-type Pokémon have more than just electric skills! Pikachu, follow me!" Seeing that the situation was not good, Ash quickly called Pikachu to rush to the other side of the river.
Electric snakes surged above the thunder cloud, and many of them were pulled off by Pikachu and wrapped around its body like another layer of protection!
Ash and his Pikachu used their Bond Evolutions again!
Ash took off his hat and put it on Pikachu's head.
"Pikachu, use Iron Tail to destroy that annoying machine!"
Pikachu now even longer tail, which shimmered in gold, turned into metal and swung out violently!
After the Bond Evolution, Pikachu instantly transformed into a giant swordsman, swung out a small but concentrated electric Air Cutter and slashed at Team Rocket's machine.
"What's this?"
As the distance was far away, the power became much smaller. The energy was not able to destroy the whole machine, but it was enough to scare Domino and lower the power of the machine pretty considerably!
Taking this opportunity, Pikachu accelerated to the machine and slashed at it again!
"BOOM!"
Pikachu's Iron Tail finally destroyed the machine with one final strike. Without the machine's absorption, Zapdos' Thunderbolt's immediately fell on Domino and her Team Rockets' minions!
They were immediately shocked into barbecue, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and exploded and flew away!
"Why is it always us!"
Although Domino already had her memory wiped away, she still sounded very professional when she said this. The Rocket Trio taught her well in his opinion!
"Bring it here!"
Before they were knocked away, Ash had already used his Psychic to grab the Crystal in Domino's arms.
However, Zapdos still ran out of power and fell from the sky, landing right in front of Ash.
Ash gently stroked Zapdos' electrically stiff feathers and said, "Wait a moment, I'll take care of the rest behind you first!"
With that said, he handed the Crystal over to Misty who caught up, and took Pikachu towards the direction where Zapdos flew from!