"Latios, aren't you going back with your sister?" Gary asked.
"Woo!"
Latios shook his head, indicating he didn't need to.
Gary looked surprised. "Wait… are you planning to come with me?"
"Woo."
Latios nodded firmly.
Gary was completely stunned. He never imagined he'd be allowed to take Latios with him. He was just grateful to have been able to place it in a Poké Ball to complete the task.
He hadn't really bonded with Latios—he had simply healed its injuries. Whether it chose to follow him or not was entirely up to Latios.
"But what about your sister? And the cathedral—doesn't it need guarding? Can you really leave?" Gary asked.
"Woo…!"
Latios cried out, assuring him it was fine. Their guardianship term was over. There were other Latios and Latias—like the one registered as No. 293—that could take over. As for his sister, she would naturally follow Ash.
"All right then. If you really want to follow me, you can—but let's be clear: if you ever want to leave, you're free to go. I won't stop you," Gary said.
"Woo!"
Latios nodded, trusting Gary even more after hearing that.
"Then come on in." Gary took out a Heal Ball and recalled Latios into it.
The Poké Ball wasn't teleported back to Professor Oak's Laboratory, because Gary had already asked Professor Oak to remove the carrying limit on his Pokémon. After all, there were often too many things to handle, and the standard limit of six Pokémon wasn't always enough.
The limit was originally set because trained Pokémon are powerful, and carrying too many could pose a risk. That's why the Pokémon League stipulates that Trainers can carry only six at a time.
To enforce this for younger Trainers like Gary and Ash, their Pokédexes are programmed with an auto-teleport function. If they catch more than six Pokémon, the excess is automatically sent to the lab.
Trainers without a Pokédex aren't bound by this restriction, but whenever they visit a Pokémon Center, their number of Pokémon is checked. If they exceed the limit, they must teleport the extras.
Gary looked at the Heal Ball in his hand and checked Latios's stats:
[Pokémon: Latios]
[Type: Dragon / Psychic]
[Level: 65]
[Potential: Legendary]
[Ability: Levitate (floats above ground)]
[Moves: Stored Power, Helping Hand, Confusion, Tailwind, Safeguard, Dragon Breath, Luster Purge, Heal Block, Zen Headbutt, Dragon Pulse, Simple Beam]
[Friendship: 160 (Max: 255)]
Looking at the data, Gary could tell that this Latios hadn't undergone formal training—it had naturally reached Level 65.
Its move pool was unimpressive. Many signature moves it should've learned were still locked. Wild Pokémon often act based on instinct and habit, so they fail to awaken all of their potential moves unless guided by a Trainer.
Even Legendary Pokémon can fall into this pattern.
"I'll teach you some better moves when we get back to Pallet Town," Gary sighed.
This Latios had Elite-level strength, but its battle options were limited. Its only real offensive moves were Luster Purge, Zen Headbutt, and Dragon Pulse. The rest were support-based, and Dragon Breath was too weak to rely on.
To be honest, Latios wasn't an especially strong Pokémon.
Its Base Stat distribution was excellent, but its Ability—Levitate—was underwhelming. In the games, Levitate grants immunity to Ground-type moves, but in reality, that wasn't entirely accurate. At most, it could avoid attacks like Earthquake or Magnitude. Other Ground moves, like Precipice Blades from Groudon, could still hit airborne targets.
"I wonder what Levitate would become if I enhanced it with an Ability Enhancement Stone…" Gary murmured.
He was curious about what kind of upgrade Levitate might get—but he wasn't about to waste a stone on it just to find out.
He only had six Ability Enhancement Stones, and over thirty Pokémon in his collection.
Even after excluding the ones he didn't plan to train, he still had over twenty potential candidates. Six stones wouldn't be enough.
And he still planned to catch more Pokémon later.
Especially considering the system task from earlier:
[Mission: Defeat Ash at the Ever Grande Conference
Reward: Random Mega Stone ×1]
If the stone rewarded wasn't compatible with his current team, he might have to start training a new Pokémon from scratch.
"I just hope the random Mega Stone isn't useless," Gary muttered.
As of now, there were 46 known Mega-Evolving Pokémon. Of these, 42 required Mega Stones to evolve.
The four exceptions—Rayquaza, Mewtwo, Latias, and Latios—could Mega Evolve without stones. So the reward would likely be one of the remaining 42 stones.
But not all Mega Evolutions were impressive. Pokémon like Audino and Sableye only got a modest stat boost, with little strategic benefit. For them, Mega Evolution was close to pointless.
After putting the Heal Ball away, Gary sped up his return and reached Pallet Town by evening.
"Gary, why didn't you come back with Ash and the others?" his grandfather Professor Oak asked in surprise when he saw him.
"I felt the trip was pretty much over, so I returned early," Gary replied.
"No way… Something huge happened in Alto Mare. Did you really resolve it?" Professor Oak asked.
The disaster in Alto Mare the night before had been major. Gary had been involved, and the League had already informed the Professor. He had expected Gary to return with the others, not ahead of them.
"Yeah, everything's settled. And…" Gary trailed off as he took out the Heal Ball and pressed the button.
Flash!
Latios appeared.
"This… This is Latios!" Professor Oak gasped. "Gary, did you capture Latios?!"
He was visibly shocked. Nothing in the League's report had mentioned Latios being caught.
"It's not quite 'captured'," Gary said. "Latios chose to follow me, and I agreed. If he ever wants to leave, he's free to go."