"Probably some kind of... mechanical-type Pokémon?"
Marshadow rejected the idea outright the moment it heard this.
"Ho-Oh's power is resurrection and purification, not fixing machinery. That kind of work is completely beyond it."
Kairos nodded. That made sense.
Which left only one answer.
Professor Oak. One of the greatest researchers in the Pokémon world, and if even he couldn't manage to repair Miraidon, then probably no one could. It was decided.
Kairos stood up, retrieved an item from his system inventory, and used it on himself. His appearance changed instantly, his face and build shifting into an entirely different form, unrecognizable from before.
With his disguise in place, Kairos headed for the door.
But before leaving, there was one more thing he needed to do.
He reopened the system panel, switched to administrator mode, and located Professor Oak's game account. His own friends list had only Cynthia in it, but as an administrator, he could message anyone without needing to add them first.
Using the golden "Wind" account, he sent Professor Oak a message.
Once that was done, he closed the panel, called out to Marshadow, and walked out of the villa.
Meanwhile, at Professor Oak's end.
Inside the laboratory in Pallet Town, Professor Oak sat before his computer monitor, staring at the screen with intense focus.
The screen showed the inventory interface of the rescue team game. Beside him sat another tablet, its surface covered in dense rows of data and handwritten notes. Professor Oak alternated between studying the game screen and scribbling on the tablet, muttering to himself as he worked.
"These Berries appear to produce special effects on Pokémon within the game, and many of them correspond to varieties that exist in the real world. So could these Berries produce similar effects in reality as well?"
He wrote and thought simultaneously, his brow alternately furrowing and smoothing as he lost himself completely in his research.
Then, a message notification suddenly popped up in the corner of the computer screen.
Professor Oak blinked, pulled his gaze away from the tablet, and looked toward the flashing icon in the bottom-right corner.
"A new message?"
He set down the tablet and opened the messaging interface.
His first instinct was that it was Cynthia. After all, she was the only person on his friends list, and she was the only one who ever messaged him.
But the next moment, he froze.
Because the sender was not Cynthia.
The profile picture was a plain default icon, entirely black with no decoration whatsoever. The username, however, was rendered in gold, a single character.
Wind.
Professor Oak blinked, then opened the message.
"Hello, Professor. I am the game's creator. It is a pleasure to see that you have uncovered so much of scientific value within my game. I will be visiting your laboratory shortly and bringing with me a new research project. I hope you won't mind."
Professor Oak's eyes went wide.
The tablet slipped from his hands and clattered to the floor, cracking the screen on impact, but he paid it no attention whatsoever.
"The game's creator?"
The person who had made the rescue team game, who had made Emerald, who had created all of these impossible and extraordinary games, had actually sent him a message of their own accord? And intended to visit him? And was bringing him a new research project?
Professor Oak drew a slow, deep breath and read the message twice more from start to finish, making absolutely certain he had not misread a single word.
His hands were trembling slightly — not from fear, but from excitement. The kind of excitement that erupts from within a researcher when they stand before something unknown and utterly unprecedented, something they have never encountered before, and find it impossible to contain.
He pushed back from his chair and rose to his feet, striding quickly to the door and calling out to his assistant in the corridor.
"If anyone comes to visit today, notify me immediately! Anyone at all!"
Then he hurried back to his desk, fixing his gaze on the message as though afraid it might sprout wings and disappear.
Twenty minutes later.
Pallet Town.
Kairos dropped down from Dragonite's back.
Dragonite flapped its wings behind him a couple of times, let out a cheerful cry, and then disappeared back into its Poké Ball.
Kairos looked up at the laboratory ahead.
Professor Oak's lab was even more impressive in person than it appeared in the game. The building occupied an enormous footprint.
Its exterior followed a modern white architectural style, though classical details had been woven into the finer touches, giving it a quality that felt both technologically advanced and appropriately dignified.
The main gate was constructed from some kind of high-strength alloy, bearing the emblem of the Pokémon League, and it caught the sunlight with a metallic sheen.
Kairos walked up to the gate and pressed the intercom button.
Before long, a man in a security uniform emerged from the guardhouse beside the entrance. He appeared to be in his early thirties, broad-shouldered and stocky, with a walkie-talkie clipped to his belt. He looked Kairos over with a stern expression.
"Who are you here to see? Do you have an appointment?"
Kairos shook his head.
"No appointment. I'm here for Professor Oak."
The security guard's brow furrowed.
"The professor receives a great many visitors every day. Without an appointment, I can't let you in. Could I ask your name?"
As he spoke, he raised a scanning device and swept it across Kairos.
The screen on the device flickered a few times, then returned a result: no matching identity on file.
The guard's expression shifted immediately.
No identity on record? That was an exceptionally rare situation in the Pokémon world, and it generally pointed to one of two possibilities: either some kind of reclusive eccentric, or someone with no traceable background.
"Sir, I'm going to need your cooperation. Please state your identity and purpose here, or I'll have no choice but to contact the authorities."
Kairos stood where he was without moving or saying a word.
A tense silence settled between them.
Just as the guard reached for his walkie-talkie to call for backup, the front gate of the laboratory swung open from the inside.
Professor Oak came striding out.
He looked older than he did on screen, his hair now more white than dark, but he carried himself with vigorous energy, and his eyes remained as sharp as ever. The moment he stepped outside, his gaze locked onto Kairos.
Though Kairos had changed his appearance, the message had said there would be a visit, and here, at precisely this time, was a visitor who had no identity on file. Professor Oak needed almost no time at all to confirm who this was.
He hurried forward, his manner unusually deferential.
"Please, come in! I've been expecting you!"
The security guard stood completely dumbfounded.
He had worked alongside Professor Oak for years, and he had never once seen the professor greet a visitor like this. Oak was generally approachable, but he was visited constantly by all manner of people — League executives, Champion-level trainers — and he received them all with the same mild, unhurried manner. He had never come rushing out to the gate himself, and certainly never with anything approaching this level of respect.
Just who was this person?
The guard stood rooted to the spot for a long moment, unable to come up with an answer, and could only watch as Professor Oak welcomed Kairos inside.
Once they were through the gate, Kairos followed Professor Oak deeper into the facility, taking in his surroundings as they walked.
The interior of the laboratory was even more expansive than the outside suggested.
The corridors were wide and well-lit, lined on both sides with individual research rooms. Through the glass walls, one could see all manner of precision instruments and equipment filling each space. Researchers in white lab coats moved busily through the rooms, some bent over microscopes, some poring over data, others conducting examinations on Pokémon, each one absorbed entirely in their own work.
As they walked, Professor Oak offered brief explanations of what each room was used for, though Kairos could tell that the professor's mind was somewhere else entirely. His gaze kept drifting over, as though there were questions pressing at him from the inside, questions he was forcing himself to suppress.
Beyond the research wing, they passed through to the rear of the building.
Here, an enormous glass wall stretched from the floor all the way up to the ceiling, so clear that it was almost invisible. On the other side lay a vast rear courtyard.
Across the wide expanse of green lawn, dozens of Pokémon were moving about freely. Some were chasing one another and playing, others were stretched out in the sunlight, and a few were splashing in a pool. The whole scene was full of vitality.
This much resembled the setup in the animated series. Professor Oak's laboratory also functioned as a Pokémon boarding facility, and many trainers left their Pokémon here while they were out on their journeys.
Kairos took in the view for a moment, then looked away.
Professor Oak led him onward, and they eventually arrived at a room at the far end of the corridor.
This was the professor's private office.
It was a large room, though it felt anything but empty, because every surface was occupied by books and documents.
Shelves ran from floor to ceiling, packed so tightly there was barely a gap, and additional stacks of research papers were piled on the floor.
The desk was in a state of cheerful chaos: monitor, keyboard, folders, a coffee mug, all heaped together without any apparent system.
Professor Oak cleared a space with a slightly embarrassed air, then poured Kairos a cup of tea.
"Please, sit down."
Kairos settled onto the sofa and took a sip.
Professor Oak sat across from him, hands clasped on his knees, wearing an expression that was difficult to read: anticipation, nervousness, and an excitement he couldn't quite suppress.
A brief silence fell over the room.
Professor Oak seemed to be organizing his thoughts. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask. How had this game been made? Where did those items, so far beyond current technology, come from? How did the reward system manage to materialize physical objects?
But in the end, he drew a slow breath and spoke first.
"There is so much I want to ask you, but... I find that what I care about most is still what you mentioned, that new research project."
The last time, he had received a machine through a game reward, one capable of reviving fossil Pokémon. He had turned that machine over to the research council, and it had directly produced a breakthrough in the field of ancient fossil Pokémon studies. Several top researchers were still conducting an in-depth investigation of that machine, while he himself had been preoccupied with studying the various elements within the game, otherwise he would have joined them.
And now, the very creator of that game was sitting before him, saying they had brought a new research project. How could he possibly not be excited?
Kairos nodded.
That did fit Professor Oak's character perfectly. Outwardly the warm and amiable Pokémon scholar, but at his core, an absolute research fanatic through and through.
Without further preamble, Kairos reached to his side and unclipped a Poké Ball.
He pressed the button, and a beam of red light shot out, taking shape on the office floor.
Miraidon materialized before them both.
It was not in good condition. The metallic shell bore several deep dents and cracks, and internal circuitry was exposed where the casing had broken away. Some wires had snapped clean through, and sections of the surface were scorched and blackened.
The eyes, which should have been bright, were dim and lifeless, and the entire body lay perfectly still, like a piece of discarded machinery.
Professor Oak blinked.
He rose instinctively from his seat and moved toward Miraidon, crouching down for a closer look.
He did not recognize this Pokémon. It appeared in no existing Pokédex and matched nothing in any documented literature. But he could tell immediately that this was unmistakably a Pokémon, not an ordinary machine, because it carried the faint but present quality of life that only Pokémon possess, dim as it was at this moment.
At the same time, it incorporated an extraordinary amount of mechanical structure. The design of those circuits and components was unlike anything he had ever seen, following none of the technical approaches used by any known mechanical Pokémon. There was a quality to it that transcended the current era — a design sensibility that belonged, unmistakably, to another era entirely, one that had not yet arrived.
Professor Oak's hand trembled slightly as he reached out and carefully touched Miraidon's shell, feeling the peculiar texture of the metal beneath his fingertips.
Kairos spoke from beside him.
"This is a Pokémon from the future. And not just any Pokémon. It's a Legendary."
Professor Oak's head snapped up, his eyes wide.
"From the future? A Legendary Pokémon?"
He had spent his entire life studying Pokémon and had encountered an extraordinary number of species, but this was the first time he had ever laid eyes on a Legendary in person.
He had previously handled items that Cynthia had retrieved from the game, and he had heard accounts of the spirit realm, but those had all been indirect experiences. Now, a real, tangible Legendary Pokémon was lying right in front of him.
He had never imagined that his first encounter with a Legendary would happen like this.
Kairos continued.
"It has malfunctioned in some way and needs help being repaired and studied. There's no obligation, of course. If your team can derive some new technology from examining it in the meantime, that's perfectly fine too. I'll continue looking into other options on my end.
"Oh, and its name is Miraidon. I'll leave it in your care."
With that, Kairos stood up.
Professor Oak was still crouching beside Miraidon, and for a moment he didn't react.
Kairos didn't linger. He walked straight to the door.
As he opened it, he glanced back over his shoulder.
Professor Oak had risen to his feet by then, watching Kairos's retreating figure. His lips parted slightly, as though there was something he still wanted to say, but in the end, nothing came out.
Kairos closed the door.
Professor Oak stood there for a good while before coming back to himself.
He looked down at Miraidon lying on the floor. A Legendary Pokémon from the future. To repair it.
He drew a long, slow breath, then crossed quickly to his desk and picked up the intercom.
"All researchers, report to Laboratory Three immediately!"
His voice carried an excitement he couldn't keep down.
"Cut all external communications to Laboratory Three. We are not accepting any further visitors today!"
He set down the intercom and knelt again beside Miraidon, reaching out to rest a hand gently on its cold metallic shell.
"Technology from the future, is it..."
He murmured quietly to himself, and the light in his eyes grew steadily brighter.