"It's only been a few days and you missed me that much?" Gary stroked the smooth scales on Latios's body.
"LATI!"
Latios nodded eagerly.
"Alright, then you're coming along this time."
Gary figured it would be good to have Latios around for transportation.
More importantly, he planned to strengthen Latios soon, and he wanted to experience firsthand just how fast Latios could be after its Ability was enhanced.
Latios: "LATI! (#^.^#)!"
"Here goes. Time for a speed boost."
Gary used an Ability Enhancement stone on Latios.
[Ding! Ability strengthened successfully.]
Gary immediately checked Latios's data.
...!
[Pokémon: Latios]
[Type: Dragon, Psychic]
[Level: 70]
[Potential: Legendary]
[Ability: EX Levitate (Automatically levitates the body. Speed stat is doubled.)]
[Moves: Stored Power, Helping Hand, Confusion, Tailwind, Safeguard, Dragon Breath, Luster Purge, Zen Headbutt, Heal Pulse, Dragon Pulse, Heal Block, Simple Beam, Dragon Dance]
[Teaching Moves: Waterfall, Body Slam, Sunny Day, Thunderbolt, Shadow Claw, Hyper Beam, Rest, Liquidation, Aura Sphere, Dream Eater, Defog, Scald, Reflect, Protect, Rain Dance, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Hidden Power, Attract]
[Friendship: 255 (max value 255)]
[Held Item: Latiosite]
"That is an insane upgrade. Speed straight-up doubled with no preconditions whatsoever. It's basically the speed version of Huge Power," Gary exclaimed.
"LATI...!"
Latios could also feel something had changed — mainly that its body felt noticeably lighter. Other than that, it couldn't quite tell the difference yet.
"Go outside and try it out. Your speed has literally doubled now," Gary said.
"LATI?"
Latios was skeptical, but decided to give it a try. It entered its invisible state and flew out the window.
Gary walked over to the window and watched. Although he couldn't see Latios's body, he could still see its name through the Eye of Insight.
Gary watched the name take off, and then it suddenly vanished from his field of vision. He tried to track it, but his eyes simply couldn't keep up with Latios's speed. The name was gone.
"This Levitate Ability is incredible. Let me think about which other Pokémon also have Levitate as well as a second and Hidden Ability..."
A clean doubling of speed was such a massive improvement that Gary was already itching to raise another Pokémon with Levitate.
After thinking it through, two Pokémon came to mind: Weezing and Bronzong.
Bronzong had three Abilities: Levitate, Heatproof, and Heavy Metal. Apart from Levitate, the other two were mediocre. On top of that, Bronzong's base Speed was only 33. Even doubled, it still wouldn't keep up with mid-speed Pokémon. Gary decisively crossed it off the list.
"Weezing...!"
Gary hesitated.
Weezing was actually a genuinely interesting candidate. The key was that its other two Abilities were Neutralizing Gas and Stench.
Stench gave a Pokémon a 10% chance of making an opponent flinch when hit by an attack. After enhancement, that would likely reach at least 20%, which was decent.
But the truly interesting one was Neutralizing Gas. This Ability nullified every other Ability on the field. After enhancement, Gary had no idea what kind of effect it might produce.
Weezing's base Speed was 60. With EX Levitate, its effective Speed stat would become 120 — fast enough to enter the realm of genuine speed attackers.
However, two things gave Gary pause.
The first was Neutralizing Gas. This Ability suppressed all Abilities on the field, and that included Weezing's own other Abilities. In other words, aside from Neutralizing Gas itself, Weezing's other two Abilities would be rendered inactive. No matter how you looked at it, that was a major drawback.
The second issue was simpler: Weezing was ugly. It just didn't match Gary's aesthetic.
"Forget it. I'll pass."
Gary thought it over and concluded that Weezing's offensive capability was too poor. Even if Neutralizing Gas was strengthened, it would only turn Weezing into a nuisance. Its actual damage output would remain low — neither its Special Attack nor its Physical Attack base stat exceeded 100.
At that moment, Latios's name reappeared in the sky. It descended slowly and glided through the window.
Gary stepped aside to give it room. Latios flew back into the room and dropped its invisible state.
"LATI!!"
Latios was thrilled, exclaiming that it was far faster than before.
"As long as you're happy."
For Pokémon, the faster they could fly, the happier they were.
The thrill of speed was addictive for any creature, and Pokémon were no exception.
Gary gazed out at the sky, thinking about which Gym to challenge next.
In order of proximity, the Castelia Gym was closest, but Burgh had gone out on his sketching trip, and it would take a full week before he returned. Only two days had passed since then, so the Gym Leader definitely wasn't back yet.
That left Driftveil City.
Driftveil City lay just west of Nimbasa City. Heading west across the Driftveil Drawbridge would take you straight there.
With his destination decided, Gary hopped on Latios and set off for Driftveil City.
Latios could turn itself invisible, so no one along the way noticed that something was streaking through the sky overhead. In less than half an hour, Gary touched down in Driftveil City.
Like Castelia City, Driftveil City was a harbor city. And wherever there was a port, development naturally followed.
After a quick lunch at a local specialty restaurant, Gary wandered through the streets for a while before arriving at the Driftveil Gym around one in the afternoon.
However, just as he reached the Gym entrance, he spotted two kids standing by the door. Calling them "kids" was a stretch — they were both over ten years old, one boy and one girl.
And Gary happened to recognize the boy.
The boy noticed Gary approaching as well. The moment he saw him, he pointed at Gary with a look of panic on his face and exclaimed, "It's you...! How did you end up in Driftveil City?!"
"Benga, do you know him?" the girl beside him asked, puzzled.
"Yeah. When I went to challenge the Castelia Gym, I ran into this Trainer. He's seriously strong," Benga said.
The girl looked at Gary with surprise. He didn't seem much older than her, yet receiving that kind of praise from Benga meant he was definitely not ordinary.
At Blueberry Academy, Benga was famous for being a hard-headed battler. If someone could get him to admit they were strong, they had to be truly powerful.