Just as Iono was feeling surprised, an even more unexpected scene unfolded before her eyes!
She could see something struggling within that deep purple vortex in front of her, as if trying to break free from the whirlpool's restraints and emerge into this world!
Iono stared in disbelief, her eyes wide open—this was the first time in her life she had witnessed such a scene!
Not only that, but even through the screen, she could clearly feel a powerful oppressive force emanating from this vortex. While it wasn't nearly as intense as the two legendary Pokémon she had just seen, it still left her somewhat breathless!
The viewers in the livestream chat were experiencing the same thing, but this state still allowed them to send various bullet comments expressing their thoughts.
[Is this that hole thingy? It really doesn't look like anything good.]
[Talk about perfect timing!]
[Why didn't Cynthia encounter this on her side? Is the streamer lucky or unlucky here?]
[Such an oppressive atmosphere—feels like something's about to come out!]
As the last comment appeared, Iono suddenly realized that what they said seemed to be true—the frequency of the vortex's trembling was suddenly accelerating!
So... what would emerge from it?
Could it be one of those Ultra Beasts that Gladion had mentioned?
Just as Iono held her breath and stared intently at the vortex, a golden figure stepped out from within it, appearing before her eyes.
With leopard-like features and a humanoid form, its entire golden mane was covered with black lightning-shaped patterns, and behind its head hung a long, tail-like strand of hair that fell straight down its back.
—This was yet another completely new Pokémon that no one had ever seen before!
At this moment, as this Pokémon emerged from the massive vortex, the vortex suddenly collapsed behind it and disappeared. However, an aura even more powerful than the vortex itself erupted from its body!
Golden electricity suddenly danced across its form, and the grass beneath its feet, along with the volcanic ash, instantly turned to charcoal in the intense electrical display.
And this seemed to be merely an inadvertent action, just a tiny fraction of its leaked power.
At this moment, Iono couldn't help but hold her breath watching this scene. This undoubtedly confirmed one thing—this was an Electric-type Pokémon!
As the Gym Leader of an Electric-type Gym, the incredible attraction such a Pokémon held for her naturally needed no further description or elaboration!
Iono stared blankly at that golden form, momentarily falling into an almost trance-like state.
However, in the next moment, the golden Pokémon in the distance suddenly raised its head, making eye contact with Iono's character.
The next instant, it actually transformed into a golden bolt of electricity and vanished from its original position, disappearing without a trace. Only the patch of charcoal on the ground proved that it had once been there.
At this moment, the viewers in the livestream also snapped back to attention, sending out their own comments.
[What Pokémon is that? It looks so awesome, holy crap!]
[Feels like it's the same type as Lucario, but even cooler than Lucario!]
[Did you guys see the electricity that erupted from its body just now? That thing looks super strong!]
[Didn't that Gladion guy mention earlier that some special Pokémon would appear from Ultra Wormholes? What were they called again? Ultra Beasts? This couldn't be an Ultra Beast, could it?]
For a moment, discussions about this Pokémon erupted chaotically throughout the livestream chat.
Meanwhile, a brilliant light suddenly appeared in Iono's eyes.
It was the instant she saw this Pokémon that she suddenly understood what love at first sight meant.
As an Electric-type specialist trainer, this Pokémon was exactly the kind of figure that would appear in her dreams!
Unfortunately, there was no longer any trace of that Pokémon in the surrounding area.
But as long as this guy had appeared in the game, even if only for an instant, it proved one thing—she would definitely have another chance to encounter it.
Recalling the scene she had just witnessed, Iono began to think. Just as the livestream viewers had said, since this guy had emerged from that place called an Ultra Wormhole, it was very likely one of those so-called Ultra Beasts.
And according to what Gladion had said earlier, once she discovered traces of Ultra Wormholes and Ultra Beasts in the game, she could contact him directly and tell him about it.
So Iono immediately opened the game's communication interface without hesitation and dialed Gladion's phone number.
The call connected quickly, and Gladion's somewhat puzzled voice came through.
"This is Aether Foundation investigator Gladion. May I ask who's calling?"
Iono pressed the interaction key and spoke: "It's me, the trainer with Electric Pokémon that you met earlier."
Gladion immediately sounded enlightened: "Oh, it's you. What's up? Is there something you need?"
Iono then told Gladion everything about discovering the Ultra Wormhole and that special Pokémon.
Then she asked the question that was burning in her heart.
"So was that Pokémon just now an Ultra Beast?"
On the other end of the phone, Gladion fell silent for a few seconds after hearing Iono's words before speaking again.
"Based on your description though, that guy probably isn't an Ultra Beast."
"Ultra Beasts are extremely dangerous entities. They only harbor hostility toward humans and would immediately attack you the moment they see you."
"But if that guy, according to your description, chose to leave immediately after seeing you, then it's probably not an Ultra Beast. Moreover, based on our Ultra Beast database, there's no entity whose appearance matches this Pokémon."
Iono felt somewhat confused upon hearing this. If it wasn't an Ultra Beast, then what kind of Pokémon could it be?
No matter how she looked at it, that guy didn't seem like any ordinary, common Pokémon.
That aura was just too powerful.
Right, the aura.
Thinking of this, Iono suddenly snapped back to attention, as if she had discovered something.
As a trainer with decent skills, she was naturally quite sensitive to Pokémon auras. Even though that Pokémon's aura had been very powerful, she had still clearly detected one thing.
That Pokémon's condition seemed somewhat weak—like it was putting on a tough front while being vulnerable inside.
It was just that when she first discovered this Pokémon, her attention wasn't focused on this point at all, so she hadn't noticed it immediately. Only now, looking back, did she realize this issue.
So she shared this discovery with Gladion as well, and this time he immediately responded after listening.
"So it's in poor condition—it must have been injured in Ultra Space."
"Could it be that it got caught up in a battle between Ultra Space and Ultra Beasts, then escaped through an Ultra Wormhole? My goodness, that's truly incredible."
Gladion's voice carried several notes of surprise.
"I can hardly imagine just how powerful a Pokémon would have to be to escape from such a hellish place."
"Miss Iono, thank you so much for providing me with this information. I'll report this matter truthfully to the Aether Foundation, and I'll give you the Aether Foundation's reward next time we meet. If you discover this Pokémon again in the future, or find any clues related to Ultra Wormholes, please contact me immediately. Thank you."
"Also, I'll go back and research this Pokémon's information more thoroughly—who knows, there might be some new discoveries."
After saying this, Gladion hung up the communication, while Iono in front of the computer screen looked thoughtful.
Ultra Space and Ultra Beasts were completely new concepts to her—perhaps unique settings within this game.
So that Pokémon just now...
And those two seemingly legendary Pokémon she had seen in the cutscene...
Do they also truly exist in the real world?
However, regardless of anything else, one thing was certain.
Since she had encountered that golden Pokémon in the game,
Next time they met, she definitely had to find a way to make it her partner!
Speaking of which, it seemed to be injured...
Could such a powerful being be healed by the game's Pokémon Centers and basic items like Potions?
Perhaps she would need some special healing methods to help it?
While Iono was encountering that special Pokémon, Cynthia had finally completed her challenge of the Lavaridge Gym.
It had to be said that this Gym Leader named Flannery was quite formidable. Not only did she have a Torkoal that could steal Cynthia's rain weather with its ability, but each of her Pokémon was also of exceptional quality. Whether it was the Combusken with the "Speed Boost" ability like the one from Dewford Gym, or that Camerupt with terrifyingly high special attack power carrying the "Charcoal" item to boost Fire-type moves, each Pokémon could stand on its own when taken individually.
Fortunately, Cynthia held the advantage of rainy weather and type matchups. After sending out Lotad to deal with the Torkoal that knew Electric-type moves, and after several attempts to figure out the strategy, she successfully cleared the Lavaridge Gym and obtained the Lavaridge Gym Badge.
After winning the battle, Flannery directly handed her a TM called "Overheat." This was an extremely powerful Fire-type move with 150 base power and quite high accuracy. The only drawback was that after using this move, the Pokémon's Special Attack would drop by two stages.
This was clearly a one-time high-power technique, but for Fire-type Pokémon with balanced Attack and Special Attack base stats, this would be quite a useful move.
After all, the Special Attack drop wouldn't affect the damage of physical moves, so they could completely use this technique to get through some key situations, then switch to physical moves for damage output.
Besides this TM, Cynthia also successfully obtained the Heat Badge, raising the level cap for all her Pokémon to level 40.
According to Cynthia's speculation, this level should allow most Pokémon to evolve into their final forms—this was her guess based on the evolution patterns of other Pokémon she had observed so far.
But for those late-blooming pseudo-legendary Pokémon, level 40 probably still wouldn't be enough for them to complete their evolution.
Fortunately, she hadn't even seen the shadow of a pseudo-legendary yet, so she probably couldn't access them anyway.
Besides raising everyone's level cap, the Heat Badge naturally also had another standard function—it allowed all of Cynthia's Pokémon to use the move "Strength."
According to Flannery's description, the "Strength" technique could push away large boulders blocking paths.
Cynthia initially felt this move didn't seem particularly special, but when she thought about it carefully, she suddenly remembered something.
—When she had passed through the Fiery Path cave earlier, she had noticed what seemed to be a large boulder on the left side of the cave blocking her way.
Whether she tried using the interaction key to have her Pokémon use moves on that boulder or tried talking to it, the boulder remained completely unmoved.
Cynthia had found it strange at the time, thinking it was a game bug, but now it seemed the game developers had planned this feature in advance.
By using "Strength" to push away that boulder, she should be able to enter the depths of the Fiery Path, right?
Who knew what might be hidden deep within that route?
Her intuition told Cynthia it had to be something significant!
However, verifying this probably wouldn't be possible in the short term, because according to Flannery's hint, to obtain this HM called "Strength," she would need to go to the Rusturf Tunnel left of Mauville City and help a man use "Rock Smash" to open the passage to Rustboro City.
Looking at the map, Cynthia discovered that the next gym she needed to challenge was actually the Petalburg Gym run by her character's father in the game.
Rather than choosing to take Old Man Hatchet's boat back the way she came to reach Petalburg Gym, using "Rock Smash" to get through this tunnel to Rustboro City would save her considerable time.
Not only that,
based on information she had learned from the livestream chat earlier,
it seemed there were also HMs to obtain in Rustboro City, along with some special items.
This route would allow her to collect everything along the way.
With this thought, Cynthia immediately made her decision.
She guided her character toward the small town left of Mauville City.