In a quiet street corner, with Victini perched on his head, a Delibird tucked under one arm, and a Terapagos under the other, Lucas glanced left and right like a thief. Only after confirming no one was following him did he finally relax.
"Whew, that scared me to death."
The scene earlier had caused quite a spectacle—nearly jamming the moving walkway. Thankfully, he had run fast. If he had been surrounded, escaping would have been difficult.
After all, many tourists and residents in Larousse City were here because of the Battle Tower. Trainers' enthusiasm for rare or unfamiliar Pokémon far exceeded ordinary imagination. Even if they weren't as fanatical as Ash, they probably weren't far off.
After confirming he was currently "safe," Lucas checked the time. There was still some time before his appointment with Professor Lund. Instead of leaving the corner immediately, he set down Delibird and Terapagos.
His gaze fell on the somewhat innocent-looking Terapagos and Victini. While running away, Lucas had already figured it out—it was probably Victini who had caused such a drastic change in Terapagos. However, since this was the first time he had seen the transformation, he still planned to have a proper talk with Terapagos about it.
But before that, he lightly flicked Victini's forehead with his finger.
"Don't abuse your powers just because you feel like it. As punishment, no snacks for half a day today."
"Vi-mi!?"
Victini immediately looked as if the sky had fallen, staring pitifully at Lucas. It opened its small mouth, revealing tiny fangs, seemingly about to plead.
But Lucas had predicted the plea and spoke with an unyielding expression: "If you beg, the punishment extends another half day."
Victini immediately fell silent, drooping like an eggplant hit by frost.
Delibird patted Victini's back, quietly comforting it. Don't worry, I still have plenty of candy in my tail.
Lucas turned a blind eye to Delibird's behavior and looked instead at Terapagos. With curiosity in his eyes, he asked, "What was that just now?"
A shy look appeared on Terapagos's face. It gently stomped its front limbs a few times, hoping Lucas would understand what it wanted to convey.
"You mean that was your battle form?"
Lucas blinked and accurately voiced Terapagos's intended meaning.
"Ba-go-go!"
Terapagos's eyes lit up and it nodded repeatedly like a pecking chick.
Actually, what Terapagos wanted to express was fairly easy to guess. After all, they had witnessed it "evolve" and then voluntarily "de-evolve" back to its current appearance. This wasn't the neighboring world where free evolution and de-evolution happened—like a puppy evolving into a mouse, then a mouse into a female angel in some Digimon scene.
Aside from temporary Mega Evolutions, evolution usually represented permanent growth. Form changes, however, were different. With examples like Deoxys, Shaymin, Meloetta, Hoopa, and Zygarde already out there, accepting Terapagos's recent change became much easier.
After all, it was the third legendary Pokémon of the Paldea region. Wearing the harmless appearance of a little turtle really lacked any sense of majesty or intimidation. The crystalline shell from that fleeting glimpse earlier—with its eighteen-type patterns on the back—had far higher grandeur.
Lucas wondered whether that Terastal form was the endpoint of Terapagos's transformations, or if there was potential for further advancement. Like Zygarde's 10%, 50%, and 100% forms.
To Lucas's question, Terapagos simply shook its head blankly, indicating it didn't know the answer either. In its worldview, the battle form was already very strong and impressive.
After sorting out the "pleasant surprise" of Terastal Terapagos, Lucas didn't continue probing the mechanics of its transformation. Instead, he headed toward the agreed-upon café. The distance was only a few hundred meters, so he didn't bother with the moving walkway. Before long, he arrived at the entrance of Zigzagoon Café.
Pushing open the glass door, a pleasant wind chime rang out. A Pokémon resembling a raccoon and badger—with mainly brown fur accented by light brown ring-shaped jagged markings and a raccoon-like "mask" pattern on its face—came forward to greet him first.
Its name was Zigzagoon, a fairly common Pokémon in the Hoenn region, making up for the café's lack of an actual Zigzagoon mascot. Zigzagoon stared with its pair of watery brown eyes, obediently called out to Lucas, then turned and made a guiding gesture. Clearly, Zigzagoon served as the café's greeter Pokémon.
Lucas followed behind it into the café, where soft music played. Interestingly, Zigzagoon didn't walk in a straight line but in a zigzag pattern. As it moved, the segmented, jagged texture of its fur somehow drew the eye.
The only pity was that although Zigzagoon looked fluffy, its fur was actually short and coarse—somewhat prickly to the touch. Lucas had no choice but to abandon his plan to pet it.
Zigzagoon led Lucas to the counter, where a staff member then guided him to a booth further inside the café.
Professor Lund was already waiting there. Beside him sat a woman with a daring hairstyle.
The moment Lucas arrived, Professor Lund—with his short blue hair—stood up directly and enthusiastically extended his hand.
"Thank you for accepting my invitation, Mr. Lucas!"
"I am Lund, and this is my research assistant, Yuuko."
Professor Lund began with self-introductions to avoid any awkwardness from unexpected circumstances. Under his warm invitation, Lucas sat opposite the two.
Without immediately diving into the topic, Professor Lund continued enthusiastically: "Is there anything you'd like to drink? Feel free to order."
A nearby staff member timely handed over the menu.
When entering the café, Lucas had already recalled Delibird and the others into their Poké Balls. To the pair, Lucas—who only carried a backpack and satchel—appeared to have come alone.
Lucas didn't refuse. After a quick glance at the menu, he ordered a mocha coffee. Once the order was noted and the staff withdrew, the conversation among the three officially began.
As a researcher, Professor Lund clearly wasn't the type to waste time with small talk and pleasantries before slowly getting to the point. He valued efficiency and dove straight into the main topic.
"I imagine you must be curious, Mr. Lucas—why would someone you've never met invite you all the way to Larousse City?"
Professor Lund interlaced his fingers, revealing a slightly stiff smile.
Lucas nodded gently. "Mm. I assume the exhibition match was just a pretext?"
"It was at first, but after learning your identity, we did arrange a genuine exhibition match," Yuuko added.
Professor Lund continued, explaining why he had invited Lucas to Larousse City.
"It was probably last summer when I happened to catch an ice-sculpting program and noticed the sculpture you made as a contestant. It was undoubtedly the Hoenn region's legendary Pokémon—the ancient super-ancient Pokémon, Rayquaza.
"My first reaction was: why would someone from the distant Paldea region have such detailed knowledge of Rayquaza? It was so realistic that every dragon scale matched the image data we had recorded almost perfectly.
"But soon I realized you might have actually seen it, or had some special encounter with it. At that time, the idea of inviting you to Larousse City was born. For insurance, I felt I needed to learn more about Rayquaza."
Professor Lund paused, took a sip of the coffee in front of him, and Yuuko smoothly took over the conversation.
"Your information is very well protected. It took some effort before we learned about your identity beyond being an ice sculptor. So, we came up with the idea of using an exhibition match to invite you to Larousse City and put it into practice before the New Year.
"The exhibition match is real—the opponent shouldn't disappoint you. As for the real reason and purpose behind using this as an excuse to invite you, could we ask you to accompany us to the research institute?"
Taking Lucas directly to the institute felt somewhat impolite. After much thought, the pair had decided to meet at the café first, explain part of the reason, and then politely invite him to the institute.
Lucas didn't answer immediately and fell into thought. He really hadn't expected Professor Lund to have discovered him through the ice-sculpting competition.
Come to think of it, Wallace had also watched the ice-sculpting contest before deciding to travel at public expense—to promote Contests in Paldea while checking on Ninetales.
Since Professor Lund was about to take him to the institute, the matter he wanted to discuss with Lucas was most likely related to the Deoxys core inside that meteorite he possessed.
—The question was: should he really agree?
Since Ash and the others had already appeared in this city, according to his memories, the plot was probably not far off. Tomorrow, both the other Deoxys and Rayquaza would make their appearances one after another.
Although he could still leave now, he was already standing in Larousse City. Whether he got involved or not no longer seemed to matter. He was already here anyway.
Licking his lips subconsciously, Lucas said, "Alright, let's go take a look."
Inside the research institute built within an artificial ecological park.
Standing in front of the operation console, Lucas gazed intently at the mysterious green crystal embedded in the extraterrestrial meteorite inside the glass tank. Strong lasers shone on the crystal, causing it to emit a special glow.
Lucas thought to himself: So this is Deoxys's core. It certainly looked peculiar—at least not like something from this planet. If Steven saw it, he'd probably get so excited he'd raise a flag. Or maybe he'd already seen it.
Professor Lund and his assistant Yuuko were demonstrating to him how laser irradiation could stimulate Deoxys's regeneration. However, the output power still seemed insufficient—far from providing enough energy.
Lucas recalled that this Deoxys's consciousness was actually awake and would communicate with Professor Lund's son, Tory, using something like visible aurora light spectra. It would also become the key to stopping the conflict between the other Deoxys and Rayquaza later.
Lucas had no intention of interfering with the specific plot progression. He could just coast through normally and reach the happy "everyone gets wrapped up nicely" ending.
His attention was focused more on what Professor Lund had told him after arriving at the institute. Simply put, the other party seemed worried that awakening Deoxys's regenerative abilities might once again attract Rayquaza, which had shown inexplicable hostility toward Deoxys four years ago. He wanted to learn more about Rayquaza from Lucas, a trainer suspected of having contacted it.
It was a rather simple and straightforward request. If Professor Lund had mentioned it earlier, Lucas could have made the trip sooner and avoided getting involved in the movie plot altogether.
The request was too simple for Lucas to refuse. He shared with Professor Lund the reason behind the "poor relationship" between Rayquaza and Deoxys.
Rayquaza viewed the sky—or rather, the planet's atmosphere and ozone layer—as its territory. Deoxys, arriving from outer space without invitation, was seen by Rayquaza as an enemy that had invaded its domain. Because of this, Rayquaza had developed hostility toward Deoxys. And given Rayquaza's personality, if it sensed Deoxys's presence, it would most likely come specially and launch another proactive attack.
This news was not exactly friendly to Professor Lund. He was already considering whether to slow down the awakening of Deoxys and first prepare defensive measures against Rayquaza's assault.
Lucas simply smiled and said nothing.
Whether defensive measures could be established in time was one thing, but Professor Lund very readily handed over the "reward" Lucas had requested: a USB drive containing a simplified version of the "City Management System Program."
As one of the developers and managers of Larousse City, Professor Lund couldn't provide the most core and complete system, but a simple version he had written himself was no problem. He also enthusiastically told Lucas that if he encountered any technical issues, he could seek help from him anytime.
Lucas's impression of Professor Lund was now firmly set: This guy is a huge nice person.
While the two were chatting happily, Yuuko, who was recording data nearby, noticed the footage playing on the overhead screen and spoke up: "Professor Lund, look at Tory…"
Professor Lund turned around and his eyes widened instantly.
"Why is there a Pokémon battle…?"
His son had developed a resistance to Pokémon because of the events four years ago. Why was he now at the Battle Tower and participating in a battle?
Lucas followed Professor Lund's gaze and raised an eyebrow. Oh? They had teamed up directly?
Tory's teammate was, unsurprisingly, Ash. Since it was a Double Battle, coordination between two trainers was required. Their opponents' Pokémon were, as expected, Blaziken and Blastoise.
Ash sent out his veteran performer, Pikachu. Unfortunately, Tory hadn't raised any Pokémon at all, leaving him frozen in place. Perhaps because he really wanted to battle, Ash simply lent him one of his own Pokémon.
Lucas had thought it would be the red-armored Coalossal (since in the movie Ash lent a Fire-type Torkoal), but what actually appeared was Pupitar, which had evolved from Larvitar.
How to put it… although the Pokémon that appeared had changed, the outcome remained the same. The two sides' coordination was completely out of sync, resulting in them being almost one-sidedly beaten.
Compared to this farce of a battle, Professor Lund's reaction beside him was more interesting. The old father, upon seeing his son throw a Poké Ball, immediately shed a line of hot tears. He muttered something about his son finally being willing to interact with Pokémon…
Once Professor Lund had calmed down and saw that the battle was nearly over, he directly invited Lucas to head to the Battle Tower together. He wanted to greet his son and, along the way, explain the evening exhibition match procedure to Lucas.
Lucas naturally had no objections. Since they had already arranged it, he might as well have a battle. However, he was somewhat curious about who exactly Professor Lund had prepared as his exhibition match opponent.
Professor Lund simply smiled and said, as if taking credit: "After learning that you are a Champion-level trainer, I changed the invited opponent. If it's him, he should be a satisfactory opponent for you, right?"
With that, Professor Lund revealed the other party's name.
"Hoenn region's Elite Four member, Drake."
…