Seeing everyone looking at him, Gary explained: "My Eevee has the Anticipation Ability. There's something nearby that could threaten us."
Professor Sada and the others were shocked. They were well aware of how dangerous it could be to trigger this kind of Ability, but everything around them looked very quiet, as if there was nothing dangerous at all.
"Gary, could Eevee have sensed wrong?" Nick asked, thinking that perhaps Eevee's own strength was weak, so even a slightly stronger wild Pokémon nearby might be enough to trigger its alertness.
"Impossible."
Eevee's Anticipation Ability had been strengthened, and it was not possible for it to be mistaken.
"VEE! VEE!"
Eevee immediately rushed toward the observation station and cried out loudly, as if trying to force whatever was hiding there to come out on its own.
After a moment, a head poked out from behind one of the buildings at the observation station.
"Hey! A Delibird!" Nick recognized the poking head at a glance.
"How did a Delibird end up here? Could it have wandered in by accident?" Hannah said, confused.
Delibird was an Ice-type Pokémon, but it was very well-suited for transportation work. Many delivery companies raised and trained Delibird to use in their operations.
Delibird's skill pool was quite unusual—it wasn't strong, with only two moves it could learn by leveling up: Present and Drill Peck. If it wanted to learn more moves, it had to rely on TMs or Move Tutors.
"Look closer. That's not a Delibird," Gary warned.
[LV52 Iron Bundle / Champion]
The creature looked very similar to a Delibird at first glance, but its entire body was made of a substance resembling scrap iron. However, it wasn't Steel-type—it was dual Ice and Water Type, a product of future technology.
"Not a Delibird?"
"How can you tell?"
Neither Garke nor Hannah could see anything wrong with it. To them, it looked exactly like a Delibird.
The next second, the iron creature stepped out from the observation station, holding a spherical device in its left hand. Through the opening of the sphere, snowballs could be seen inside.
"This... a mechanical Delibird?"
"An artificial one?"
"It's not a machine!" Professor Sada shouted urgently. "That's a Paradox Pokémon!"
"GAWU!"
As if realizing its identity had been exposed, the iron creature aimed the spherical device at everyone, and a blast of freezing air burst out.
"Eevee, Fire Blast!" Gary immediately countered.
"VEE!"
Eevee condensed a massive ball of flame, disproportionately large compared to its own body, and hurled it down. The freezing air evaporated instantly on contact.
BOOM!!
The Fire Blast connected, and the iron creature was blown backward.
The creature, sent flying, showed a look of surprise on its mechanical face. It quickly slung the spherical device onto its back. The device's launch port immediately spewed out freezing air, propelling the creature to accelerate away in an escape attempt.
"Don't let it get away—Psychic!" Gary couldn't let this thing escape. This was a future Paradox Pokémon, and it had just triggered the system's mission.
"VEE!"
Eevee immediately used Psychic, and in one powerful instant, bound the fleeing creature in place.
The creature's body floated helplessly, dragged under Eevee's control and sent flying rapidly toward a thick tree.
BANG!!
The tree couldn't withstand the impact and snapped from the force of the collision. The creature fared no better—it was struck directly, and the collision knocked it out cold, its eyes closing.
"Vee."
Sensing no more resistance from the creature, Eevee carried it back over to Gary.
"Well done."
Gary praised his partner, pulled a red-and-white ball from his pocket, and threw it at the creature.
Bang!
The moment the Poké Ball struck the creature and bounced open, it sucked the creature inside. The ball landed on the ground, wobbled three times, and then stopped shaking.
[Ding! Mission released: Conquer Paradox Pokémon (Future Species). For each future Paradox Pokémon captured, reward: Gold Bottle Cap x1, Ability Expansion Stone x1. For submitting all ancient Paradox Pokémon, reward: Master Rare Candy x10, Crown of God x1.]
[Ding! Successfully captured Iron Bundle. Reward has been placed into System Storage.]
Gary looked over the mission details. Compared to capturing ancient Pokémon, this one offered an additional Ability Expansion Stone as a reward.
Gary picked up the Poké Ball and checked the creature's data.
[Pokémon: Iron Bundle]
[Type: Ice, Water]
[Level: 52]
[Potential: Champion]
[Ability: Quark Drive (When holding Booster Energy or on Electric Terrain, its highest stat is increased by 30%.)]
[Moves: Present, Leech Life, Whirlpool, Take Down, Drill Peck, Glaciate, Helping Hand.]
[Friendship: 30 (max value 255)]
Iron Bundle's move pool was honestly quite poor—not a single move with a power of 100 or higher—and its Friendship value was far too low, sitting at only 30.
Although the two sides had fought without knowing each other beforehand, there wasn't any deep-seated hatred between them, so there was no real reason for the Friendship to be quite this low.
"Gary... you actually caught it..." Garke said, sounding stunned.
"Yeah, is there a problem?" Gary asked.
"No... no." Garke was just too surprised. Gary's capture speed was incredible—it usually took a great deal of time and effort to subdue any Paradox Pokémon they encountered.
"Professor." Garke turned to look at Professor Sada.
Professor Sada walked over to Gary and said, "Gary, you should know the rules by now. The Pokémon you just captured is what we call Iron Bundle, and it is indeed a type of Paradox Pokémon."
"You know this Pokémon, Professor?" Gary asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yes. This Pokémon is called Iron Bundle. Because its body is made of scrap-like iron and it carries a bundle-shaped device, it earned that name. It's been sighted twice before, but it managed to escape both times. It's said to be incredibly fast—if you hadn't acted the moment you did, it likely would have gotten away just now," Professor Sada explained.
"Professor, I can hand Iron Bundle over to you, but I should warn you—this one has quite the temper. It attacked us on its own just now. Are you sure you'll be able to handle it?" Gary asked.
In truth, Gary had never intended to keep Iron Bundle for himself. Although its Base Stat Total wasn't low and its speed was impressive, its speed had one fatal weakness: it could only reach its top speed by relying on that spherical device. Without it, Iron Bundle moved on its own two feet, and it wasn't particularly fast at all.
Even its Ice-type moves required the assist of that device to activate. Gary suspected that without the sphere, Iron Bundle's combat strength would drop drastically, leaving it with almost no value as something worth raising.
It was a bit like Farfetch'd losing its leek stalk—without it, all that was left was something fit only to be ingredients.
"It's fine. There's a transmitter here at the observation station that can send the Poké Ball straight to the Paldea League Headquarters. Don't worry about it," Professor Sada said.