“Phew, it should be safe hiding here.”

The talking Ledyba had led Hikaru into an underground passage. It explained: “In this era, everything is mechanical. 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 some reason, you give me an insectoid vibe. If you serve me, 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… something 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 mechanical 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 me like that!” Ledyba gasped when Hikaru let go, now visibly shaken.

“My last human slave also had Guts. Took me ages to catch him! If only I still had my Mega Stone, you wouldn’t humiliate me so easily!”

Hikaru frowned. “Mega Stone? I’ve heard of many, but never of a Ledyba Mega 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 means you also have a time machine!”

“I, on the other hand, came from an era just before this one. I was battling another time traveler from the ancient past. I touched the time machine mid-fight and got dragged here. I lost my Mega 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 time machine. Something 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 Time 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 Time Gate, the normal ending was the professor inventor returning to their own time, while the future remained ruled by Bug Pokémon.

But in the IF ending, the battle between the professor and Ledyba caused the time 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 some made-up hero form like “Super Ledyba” or “Mega 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 emerging…”

Right!

The future world described in the Black 2/White 2 movie—wasn’t that essentially the same as the Scarlet/Violet future paradox world?!

Human athletes became Iron Hands. Mad scientists built Iron Valiant. Evil groups engineered Iron Treads. Hydreigon merged with machines to produce Iron Jugulis… Everything became mechanical!

Some theorize paradox Pokémon come from parallel worlds, or are creations of Terastal energy made real from imagination.

Once they appear, their “history” becomes 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 spacetime-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 times. I’m sick of this place. If you have a time machine, start it up and send me 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 filmed it!

Ledyba glared, raising its spear. “That’s none of your business!”

“Don’t underestimate me! Even if you’re strong, I have ways to deal with you. I only slipped up earlier!”

“I brought you here to activate the time 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 time 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!”

Slammed 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, named “Keldeo,” only knew Mach Punch at best.

This was worse. A superhuman! The resistance had some 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 something 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 me! I surrender!” Ledyba immediately begged, utterly cowed.

“See? Should’ve done that earlier. Underestimating humans will cost you. Your base stats are way too low. Come back after evolving into some imaginary Super Ledyba.”

“Now—where’s that professor who came with you?”

“Th-they… got taken by robots! She collapsed on the road. I ran. Don’t blame me—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 time machine secrets—or worse, modify her.

If the movie’s world became 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 seemed to have some mission… maybe to capture it.”

“There are humans here too! Some 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 mechanical. 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. Something 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. Time for a snack.

Between bites, it growled: “Grhhmff. That robot has fought you countless times. It calls itself the programmed 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, come in!” Hikaru called into the C-Device. But there was no response. The screen flickered, the time machine option greyed out.

“Missing power? Then we’ll have to hit the evil group’s base.” Ledyba suggested: “A time 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 spacetime.

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 metal 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. Time 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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