After obtaining the Ancient Lustrous Orb, John was ready to leave the area. If the secret realm of the Floating Island held nothing else of value, he planned to head straight home.
He intended to use his Gameboy to locate both the Ancient Adamant Orb and the Ancient Lustrous Orb in-game, then quickly gather the materials needed to craft Gardevoir's Divine Treasure.
"Hold up a second," Saul suddenly said, stopping John in his tracks.
"What's wrong?" John turned back, curious.
Saul squatted down in the middle of Zapdos' former nest. The air still crackled faintly with leftover electricity. He picked up a bundle of thick wires and glanced at the eight towering lighthouses surrounding the area.
"These eight lighthouses must be storing a massive amount of electricity. Zapdos must've spent ages gathering it," Saul said. "It's a rare energy source for Electric-type Pokemon."
He grinned. "Don't waste it. Let Zeraora absorb everything."
"Oh! Right!" John smacked his forehead, laughing. He had completely forgotten.
Those lighthouses Zapdos built were basically giant batteries, charged by enslaving other Electric-type Pokemon. John had seen a similar setup before, he'd even brought one back to his lab from Trial Island to use as a personal "charging station" for Zeraora.
And now there were eight of them. Eight! Zeraora was about to have the best day of its life.
John gestured excitedly. "Zeraora, go ahead! Start absorbing the energy."
Zapdos's design was surprisingly simple. The lighthouses acted as conductors, Electric-type Pokemon only needed to connect the wires to start the flow. Like plugging in a giant straw.
Zeraora stepped into Zapdos's nest, and arcs of lightning shot toward it from every direction, converging into a blinding sphere of light that wrapped around it completely. From afar, it looked like a glowing ninth lighthouse had joined the lineup.
Unlike Zapdos, who merely rested in the current, Zeraora was drinking the electricity.
However, even it couldn't absorb the power of eight lighthouses all at once, it would take a while.
"Well," John said with a sigh, "looks like I'm stuck here for a bit."
Since he had to wait for Zeraora anyway, he decided to let Mega Gardevoir train in the meantime. He could use his Gameboy to search for the Ancient Adamant Orb and Ancient Lustrous Orb just as easily from here as anywhere else.
He turned to Gardevoir. "Use Secret Power to carve out a little place for us."
Gardevoir nodded and created a hidden doorway in the side of a nearby rock. Inside was a cozy setup: a beanbag, refrigerator, and a small computer desk. John stretched, cracked open an ice-cold Coke, poured it into a glass, and queued up a comedy movie. Finally, he leaned back into the beanbag, opened his Gameboy, and started grinding for the orbs.
The mission: find the Ancient Adamant Orb and the Ancient Lustrous Orb.
The question: where?
In the games, the regular Adamant Orb and Lustrous Orb come from Dialga and Palkia respectively. To get them, you usually had to fight those two.
But the Ancient versions only existed in the Arceus version, set in the Sinnoh Region over two thousand years in the past.
That meant one thing: to find them, he'd have to travel through time.
John frowned, rubbing his chin. "Travel through time, huh? That's... not exactly easy."
Even with the diamond he possessed, Gardevoir couldn't manipulate time like Celebi. Gardevoir's mastery of time was limited to Future Sight, not actual time travel. The difference was like reading tomorrow's newspaper versus living tomorrow.
"So how am I supposed to go back two thousand years?" he muttered.
Then his eyes widened. "Wait... Celebi?"
He suddenly remembered. Back when he became Hoenn's Champion, the Hoenn Alliance had given him a few exploration missions. During one of them, he had actually encountered a group of Celebi and Shaymin.
"Of course!" John's eyes gleamed. "If I can find Celebi again, maybe I can use it to travel back to ancient Sinnoh!"
Without wasting a second, he fired up his Gameboy, called out his Pokemon, and commanded his team to take flight toward Hoenn's Ever Grande City.
Once there, he leaped onto the waves and surfed south, toward the adventure that awaited.