"Phew, it should be safe hiding here."
The talking Ledyba had led Hikaru into an underground passage. It explained: "In this era, everything is chanical. Robots rule the world. They say in those towering steel skyscrapers, there's an evil organization mass-producing machines, led by a mad scientist."
"Ending up in this era is the worst… And to think I'd see you humans again—such lowly creatures. How rare."
"Ever since I lost my human slave, I haven't seen another one of you in ages. You look pretty capable. Want to consider becoming my slave?"
"For so reason, you give an insectoid vibe. If you serve , maybe I'll be in a good mood and groom your hair."
"A Pokémon that can talk…" Hikaru set down Duraludon and sprayed potion over its wounds, watching its expression ease. Then he carefully studied this peculiar Ledyba.
The words it used… sothing about this felt familiar.
"Calling humans 'lowly' and 'slaves'—from a Pokémon?"
Ledyba waved its spear. "Of course! In my era, humans were nothing but our Bug Pokémon's slaves! If not for an accident, I wouldn't have ended up here…"
"This chanical age is worse than mine. Damn it… so this is the result of technology advancing too far, until humans struck back."
"If not for special circumstances, I would never have worked with you lowly crea—ugh!"
Before it could finish, Hikaru pressed it face-first into the ground with one hand.
Such overwhelming strength!
"This human's Ability must be Guts!"
"Haaah! I thought I'd die! How dare you humiliate like that!" Ledyba gasped when Hikaru let go, now visibly shaken.
"My last human slave also had Guts. Took ages to catch him! If only I still had my ga Stone, you wouldn't humiliate so easily!"
Hikaru frowned. "ga Stone? I've heard of many, but never of a Ledyba ga Stone."
"Hmph! That's because you're just a low—" It stopped itself, seeing Hikaru crack his knuckles, and swallowed the rest.
"Fine! I'll explain. You—you just appeared here suddenly, right? That ans you also have a ti machine!"
"I, on the other hand, ca from an era just before this one. I was battling another ti traveler from the ancient past. I touched the ti machine mid-fight and got dragged here. I lost my ga Stone too."
"That stone was the foundation of our Bug Pokémon's dominion. It gave us wisdom and power. With it, we rose up, slaughtered humans, and enslaved them. Humanity had no chance against us!"
"But then ancient humans invented the ti machine. Sothing even our Bug Pokémon couldn't do! To think humans could build it…"
Hikaru listened to its rambling, and suddenly realized who this was.
"…Tsk!"
Future Ledyba—straight out of the Pokéstar Studios movie Traveler of the Ti Gate!
This was a fictional movie character!
But… had that movie even been released yet?
In Black 2 and White 2, players could film this movie at Pokéstar Studios. Each movie had both a normal and an IF ("what if") ending.
In Traveler of the Ti Gate, the normal ending was the professor inventor returning to their own ti, while the future remained ruled by Bug Pokémon.
But in the IF ending, the battle between the professor and Ledyba caused the ti machine to overload, sending them even further into the future.
There, they saw a massive machine city. Heartless robots lived there, with humans treated as disposable parts, discarded after use.
The ending hinted the professor was captured by robots, likely turned into one.
As for Ledyba—it went from ruler to nothing, reduced to irrelevance!
Without power, even if Ledyba "evolved" into so made-up hero form like "Super Ledyba" or "ga Ledyan," it wouldn't matter. After all, Ledyba can't evolve further at all.
Palkia's ability to manifest thoughts into reality had been shown before—such as in the movie The Rise of Darkrai. Even before Dialga arrived, Palkia's power alone could bring nightmares to life.
"Mind is part of space… thoughts becoming real… Paradox Pokémon erging…"
Right!
The future world described in the Black 2/White 2 movie—wasn't that essentially the sa as the Scarlet/Violet future paradox world?!
Human athletes beca Iron Hands. Mad scientists built Iron Valiant. Evil groups engineered Iron Treads. Hydreigon rged with machines to produce Iron Jugulis… Everything beca chanical!
So theorize paradox Pokémon co from parallel worlds, or are creations of Terastal energy made real from imagination.
Once they appear, their "history" becos real history.
But even by the end of Scarlet/Violet, this mystery remained unsolved. The supposed source of Terastal, "Terapagos," turned out to just be a turtle-like creature able to channel stellar crystals.
The Terastal tree that produced the Herba Mystica? No new info at all.
Still, Terastal clearly had spaceti-shaping power. Kitakami's Crystal Pool proved it.
"Yare yare…" Hikaru sighed.
So this world fused the movie's fictional future with the paradox future of Scarlet/Violet?
The deity of mind and space had really done it. The true "Dragon of Fantasy"!
"I get it now." Hikaru understood the world's premise.
A world without hearts—exactly the paradise Cyrus wanted.
Pokémon and humans alike turned to machines.
And yet, even without hearts, scientists still sought to build weapons of war. Proof Cyrus's dream was hollow.
"You see my greatness now? Bug Pokémon are the true rulers of the world!"
"Listen well! Both you and I want to return to our tis. I'm sick of this place. If you have a ti machine, start it up and send back!"
Hikaru asked, "Wasn't there also a professor with you? What did they look like?"
If this was a movie made real, then that professor should have the face of Curtis or Yancy, right?
Hmm… In Pokéstar Studios, Yancy was the actress who fild it!
Ledyba glared, raising its spear. "That's none of your business!"
"Don't underestimate ! Even if you're strong, I have ways to deal with you. I only slipped up earlier!"
"I brought you here to activate the ti machine! Do it—or I'll use String Shot!"
Hikaru: "?"
Seriously? I thought you were about to say Spacial Rend. But String Shot?
"Forget it. I know who you are. But the ti machine button is greyed out—it won't start."
"And besides… watch closely!"
Hikaru raised his palm and blasted Ledyba away with psychic force.
"This is Extrasensory!"
Slamd into the wall, Ledyba froze in shock and fear.
A human… using psychic power?!
"Super Strength plus Psychic—you're Fighting and Psychic dual-type?!"
The last human it caught, nad "Keldeo," only knew Mach Punch at best.
This was worse. A superhuman! The resistance had so too—humans with strange powers. They were nightmares to deal with.
"But—but Bug resists Psychic! Argh… can't pull free!"
Hikaru blinked. "You even know type matchups? You're no ordinary fictional role."
"Fine then… I'll use my Sticky Ball!"
"Sticky… what?"
Before Ledyba could blink, Hikaru pulled sothing from his bag, molded it into a ball, and hurled it.
Splat! The ball struck true. Ledyba instantly felt weak, defenses crumbling. Dizzy, it reeled—only for Hikaru to flick it on the forehead, stars bursting in its vision.
"To deal with you types, heavy punches work best." Hikaru rolled up his sleeves.
"Guh! Sorry! Don't kill ! I surrender!" Ledyba imdiately begged, utterly cowed.
"See? Should've done that earlier. Underestimating humans will cost you. Your base stats are way too low. Co back after evolving into so imaginary Super Ledyba."
"Now—where's that professor who ca with you?"
"Th-they… got taken by robots! She collapsed on the road. I ran. Don't bla —we Bugs aren't allies of humans!"
Hikaru sighed.
So just like the IF movie ending, the professor had been captured. Likely the robots would force her for ti machine secrets—or worse, modify her.
If the movie's world beca real, then it was just another parallel world to Pokémon's.
"What about Iron Valiant?" Hikaru pressed.
Ledyba explained quickly: "I—I don't know much! That weird robot just appeared recently. It keeps attacking that steel dragon. I saw them fight in the ruins. The robot seed to have so mission… maybe to capture it."
"There are humans here too! So control robots. I've seen modified humans! Evil groups and mad scientists are working to transform all flesh into machines. They're targeting Steel Pokémon. After all, they already look chanical. If they unravel how Steel Pokémon exist, they can build stronger cyborgs!"
"Grr…" Duraludon stirred, letting out a roar.
It was grateful to Hikaru's help, though it didn't know him. Sothing about Hikaru felt… dragon-like.
Hikaru: "That one is Fairy/Fighting. You have type advantage—but Fighting wrecks Steel. So it's even."
"Grhh…" Duraludon groaned, then stood, eyes darting. Finding a scrap of rebar, it began chewing it noisily.
Battle made it hungry. Ti for a snack.
Between bites, it growled: "Grhhmff. That robot has fought you countless tis. It calls itself the programd dragon-slayer."
"And don't talk with your mouth full."
Hikaru read its thoughts easily.
Ledyba froze. "Y-you can understand Pokémon speech?!"
It now saw Hikaru as even more dangerous. Too bad it was stuck under him.
"You were just thinking that, right? That you resent being under a human?" Hikaru shot it a look. "Guess I went too easy on you."
"Eek! I thought nothing! I'm sorry!" Ledyba bowed instantly, not even daring stray thoughts.
Hikaru pondered Iron Valiant's "dragon-slayer" setting.
Theoretically, Iron Valiant mirrored Roaring Moon, the ancient "true dragon." But since Roaring Moon couldn't exist in the future, Iron Valiant needed a new target.
So—it hunted the Steel Dragon instead?
If a mad scientist existed here, then "dragon-slayer operations" were just tests of Iron Valiant's strength.
"Rotom, co in!" Hikaru called into the C-Device. But there was no response. The screen flickered, the ti machine option greyed out.
"Missing power? Then we'll have to hit the evil group's base." Ledyba suggested: "A ti machine needs energy to start. Ancient humans used it too!"
"If nothing else, we might need to rescue that professor."
Hikaru tapped his temple, then glanced at his Poké Balls.
Still locked. Shrunk. The magnetic field scrambled them. Even his magnetism tricks couldn't override it.
So this was like a special "instance" outside spaceti.
What did Palkia want? For him to solo an evil organization?
His Pokémon locked away, leaving him only a Duraludon and a delusional Ledyba?!
Duraludon noticed his gaze.
"Grhrrhrr."
Fight that iron robot again?
Only after I eat. I spawn in cities, after all.
Why? Isn't it obvious?
I'm Duraludon… "Trash Eater."
"Geez, you poor thing. Haven't eaten real food? Here." Hikaru tossed it a Steel Gem.
Duraludon's eyes went wide.
It spat out its scrap tal and eagerly took the gem, chomping happily.
Rusty scraps or fine gemstones—it ate them all. That was a balanced diet.
Mmm! Fresh alloy taste! Delicious!
Haku—!
"Too rusty and beaten. Ti for repairs." Hikaru pulled out his repair tools—and a straight wand.
Duraludon tilted its head.
"Fire electric energy as arrows!" Hikaru tapped its body with the Yew Wand. A golden current surged across Duraludon, electromagnetism stripping away its rust in seconds.
"Magic: Rust Removal!"
(End of Chapter)
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