The stick proffered by Ash quickly grew a large wad of discarded Pokémon webs on the end as Goh continued to use it to clear the way ahead of them. If nothing else, this set his mind to ease about if they'd run into anyone else within the temple's depths. There was no way any humans would have made their way through without having to clear the cobwebs and disturb the dust.

As they walked down, Chloe's attention turned to the walls. While there were occasional indentations and places where torches would be held, those torches were long gone and deteriorated. But what truly drew her eye were the inscriptions. Instead of the worn pages of the book, or the weathered inscriptions outside, the writing was clear and sharp, if a bit dusty. "It's just like the pictures we studied in class…" she whispered. "These are way clearer than the ones we've seen so far…"

"So your expertise will be that much more helpful," Goh said, making more a statement of fact than asking a question.

She nodded. "Yeah. If we come across any more writing we need to translate to move ahead, I should be able to handle it."

"I'd say you can count on me for any Pokémon that show up, but I don't think anything's lived down here in a long time," Ash said, peering into the darkness as Goh removed another set of cobwebs.

"I'm sure we'll still need your out of the box thinking," Goh said with a smile. "Besides, if it wasn't for you knowing Rainer and his brothers, we probably wouldn't have even gotten this far, right?"

Ash nodded, a confident smirk rising to his lips.

The further they descended into the mountain and the temple, the further the light shining behind them seemed to be, and the more intense the feeling of being underground became. While Goh wouldn't say he was claustrophobic, there was a feeling of pressure being exerted over him that came from entering what was effectively a man-made cavern, a sort of mineshaft designed for worship instead of extracting minerals. That combined with the runes inscribed on the walls gave it an eerie air.

"So far it's all been the same stuff repeated over and over," Chloe said. "'We Offer Our Prayers To' ...something."

"Something?" Goh didn't look back at her to ask, but kept heading down the stairs, clearing the pathway.

"I don't know what it is yet. It's not a symbol that appeared in my notes or in the book. And it's just that phrase, over and over. I can't tell what it means without any more context."

Ash shrugged. "Could it be the symbol for 'god'?"

Both Chloe and Goh stopped to look at him. "...why would you say that?" Goh asked.

He shrugged again. "Well, when you think about temples, you think about stuff bein' worshipped, right? That's a god. Maybe whatever that symbol means is whatever they were worshippin'."

Goh scratched his chin. "I guess that's possible… but we'll only know more by heading down further into the dark."

Chloe shined her light right onto him. "You're not scared, are you?"

"Of course not," he shook his head. "But if you get scared, Ash and I'll handle this."

"And let you guys have all the fun? No thanks."

She stepped past him down the stairs - they were wide enough for all three of them to walk down side by side if they wanted. Goh could tell they would soon be reaching the bottom, and the end of the natural sunlight they would have access to. Though their shadows obscured the sunlight shining in behind them, their own lights made it perfectly reasonable to see that the bottom of the stairs had their own inscribed pattern. The cobwebs were finally all cleared out, and so all that remained was the fine layer of dust covering the floor. The inscription looked like the sun rising over the mountains, which Goh found quite appropriate.

At the bottom was a stone door, just past the inscription but cloaked in darkness until they shined their phones upon it. It, too, had inscriptions on it. Chloe looked closely and nodded.

"'Pass through here and complete the trials three to open the way.'"

"Who are the Trials Three?" Ash asked.

"It's poetic license," Goh said. "It means there's three trials past this door."

"Oh."

Goh looked at the door's engravings a bit closer. The door was marked with the symbol that Chloe had indicated meant 'Fire' before, and there were also images of flames on the door itself. There were two large handles on the stone doors, and so Ash and Goh each took one with both hands and pulled hard. The stone doors slowly grinded open, their hinges clearly clogged with dust after centuries of disuse.

The room beyond was as dark as Goh himself expected, though when they shined a light on the walls, they appeared to be made of a redder, richer earth than the plain brown stone they had descended into so far. This made the room feel just a bit warmer, even if it was still very cold underground this far away from the sun.

Stepping into the chamber proper, Ash, Goh, and Chloe were funneled into a passageway that seemed to split off in two directions.

"Which way do we go from here?" Chloe asked.

Her voice echoed - this chamber was much larger than it seemed. Goh looked up and shined his light. The ceiling was quite a bit further away than he'd thought it would've been, and the wall forming this pathway seemed to cut off after a certain point.

"Wait, I know."

Goh took out a Poké Ball and opened it. In the darkness one of Goh's partners appeared in a flash of light that temporarily lit up the entire room.

"Leon."

Inteleon stood there, looking at Goh with his sharp eyes.

"Inteleon, can you climb this wall and tell me if you see a maze," he instructed. "Here, take this to help you see."

"Intel," he said, shaking his head before pointing at his own eyes. Goh saw the nictitating membranes cover them and a light, pale blue glow emanate from the membranes.

"Oh, I uh…" Goh coughed, chuckling. "I guess you can just see in the dark, can't you?"

"Inteleon."

"My bad."

Inteleon turned to the wall and scrambled up it. Unlike the walls in the entrance way, these were plain, made of some smooth stone or clay. Goh put his hand on the wall and wiped away a layer of dust before brushing his hands against his pants to remove it.

"Inteleon!"

His Pokémon crawled back down and nodded at Goh.

"It's just like I thought…"

Ash turned to him. "So what's goin' on, Goh?"

"This floor… I guess the 'trial' is some sort of maze. It's probably intended to prevent intruders from breaking in and reaching the inner chambers, but whoever was protecting this place is long gone." He looked at Inteleon, smirking. "Thankfully, thanks to Inteleon, we can cheat the maze. He can look ahead, see where dead ends are, and mark them with a spray of water!"

"Goh, that's really clever!" Chloe said, her eyes gone wide. "I wouldn't have thought to do that."

Ash chuckled. "Yeah, that's awesome! I'm pretty bad at mazes, anyway, so let's have Inteleon help us!"

"Pikachu!"

Goh turned to his partner and gave him a nod. "Alright, Inteleon. It's up to you. Climb up there and spray some water wherever you see a corridor leading down a dead end, alright? We're trying to get to a door that's probably on the opposite side of this chamber."

Inteleon gave Goh a nod before heading back up the wall. They waited a few moments as Inteleon scoured the area with his night vision before a spray of water splatted near the left-hand path. With the puddling indicating which way was wrong, Goh and his friends began heading to the right.

As they continued walking, he heard Chloe going through her backpack. Now with Eevee holding her phone in her paws while sitting on her shoulder, Chloe was sketching something on a piece of notebook paper as they continued following the path laid out for them by Inteleon.

"What're you doing?"

"It may be a good idea if we have a pathway through this maze that's not reliant on Inteleon telling us the way to go after the first time," she said. "I'm drawing the path we're taking so if we ever need to run backwards, we can just follow the directions on here."

There was another splat ahead of them as Inteleon continued to indicate dead ends and incorrect directions.

"Makes sense," he said.

"Only…"

"Hmm?"

Goh looked over at the map she was drawing, with Ash leaning over as well.

Chloe tapped the paper. "It feels like we're going around the middle of the maze, doesn't it? I wonder if there's something we're missing."

Goh nodded. "That's a good point, but we should make sure we find the exit first before we worry about looking for anything we miss. It'd be bad to just waste our time, right?"

"Yeah, especially in a place as dark as this," she said, frowning.

Ash put a hand on both their shoulders. "Let's keep movin' forward then, alright?"

Goh and Chloe both agreed with a nod.

They continued following Inteleon's directions quietly until they came to another stone door. This did seem like it was the opposite side of the chamber, on the other side of the maze. This door was sealed, with no handles, much like the one that sealed the temple originally. Inscribed on its surface were images that looked like lightning bolts and storm clouds, as well as the symbol combination Chloe had identified as lightning in her book.

Ash gave the door a shove and it didn't move.

"Well, now what?" he asked.

Goh looked around, shining with his phone. "Inteleon?"

"Leon."

His Pokémon landed next to him from the top of the maze walls, his two eyes still glowing in the dark.

"Is there anything we missed that you saw?"

"Inteleon," he said, pointing his finger upward, above the door.

Goh craned his neck upwards, shining with his phone until he came to a spot near the roof of the room. Hanging out of the wall looked to be some sort of chain. Two lines of chain were suspended through this hole in the wall that he saw, and following the chains with the light his phone emitted showed that they were attached to a pole in the middle of the maze.

"Well, you were right," he said. "Looks like we did miss something important."

She giggled to herself. "It was just a lucky guess."

"Let's see what it is that stuff is connected to," Ash said. "Can you lead the way, Inteleon?"

"Intel."

Following Inteleon's new directions, Goh, Chloe, and Ash made their way towards the middle of the maze. It was a much quicker navigation than before, and Chloe continued to update her map as they did. Once they finally came to the middle, it took them a few moments to discern what was there.

When they arrived, they found that the long pole seemed to be connected to a device of some kind. It was made of bronze and balanced on a single point, though the base was as flat as it was narrow, so it didn't seem to be in any danger of tipping over. On the top of the machine, near the pole, was a section that could be lifted off, to let someone look inside. On the inside, there was nothing, and on the sides were two wings, each with a very small nozzle on the end that pointed in opposite directions.

Ash scratched his head at the device. "What in the world is this? Do we just kinda turn this?"

Goh chuckled and shook his head. "Nope," he said, grinning. "But I know exactly what this machine is!"

"You do?" Ash blinked at him.

Chloe nodded. "I thought you might remember," she said, a wry smile on her own lips. "Go ahead, Goh. What is it?"

He smiled and nodded, point to the machine. "This is called an aeolipile. It's also called the hero's engine."

"Hero's engine…?" Ash asked.

"It's a kind of very basic steam engine. You fill it with water, and then set a fire beneath it to cause the water to boil. The boiling water builds up pressure inside. The pressurized water vapor shoots out the nozzles at such a high speed, it makes the machine spin. And in this case, the mechanical spinning machine will spin the chain, and that'll probably open up the door and let us into the next chamber."

Ash's expression was practically bursting with excitement. "That's so cool! Science is so amazing!"

"Let's get started, then!" Goh said, pumping his fist.

Even Chloe chimed in with a "Yeah!"

Ash took out one of his Poké Balls, tossing it up into the air. The ball snapped open and in a bright flash of light that briefly lit up the dark maze, there appeared Ash's strangely mismatched fossil dragon. Dracovish stood tall with a green and red body with their strangely fish-like head and small fins hanging in the air.

"Draaco-Viiish!" Their voice was cheerful, at least.

"Dracovish, use Water Gun!"

Ash pointed into the aeolipile with his finger and Dracovish turned to it and did just that, spraying a stream of water from their mouth to try and fill it up.

Chloe crouched down at Eevee's side. "We can help, too, can't we, Eevee?"

"Eievui!"

The tinky, spunky Pokémon jumped forward to join Ash's Dracovish, and she began to glow with a cool, blue light. Eevee then raised her head and began spraying her own Water Gun into the engine, copying from Dracovish.

Goh took a ball from his pocket and tossed it up. "Cinderace, come on out!"

In a flash, Goh's first Pokémon stood by his side. "Derace!"

"First, Inteleon, help Dracovish with your Snipe Shot!"

"Intel." With a graceful nod, Inteleon turned to the opening where Eevee and Dracovish were already sloppily spraying their own water in before pointing with his finger. A stream of water, as if Inteleon hadn't built up the pressure to fire a full-fledged Snipe Shot, lazily shot from his finger and into the hero's engine.

"Now Cinderace, use Pyro Ball and put those fireballs right next to it!"

"Cinder!" With a nod, Cinderace kicked at the ground, knocking up a tiny pebble. He began kicking it around with his large feet until it became a large, crackling ball of flames. Instead of kicking it hard as he would if he were in a battle, Cinderace simply lobbed it with a gentle tap, causing it to land next to the aeolipile.

Eevee turned, seeing Cinderace's actions and stopped spraying her Water Gun. Instead, she was quickly cloaked in an aura that looked like fire, with the tip of her tail glowing bright red. With her tail, she swept up a pebble, and using her tail, knocked up into the air a few times before it, too, became a Pyro Ball. She smacked it with her tail, rolling it across the ground to where Cinderace had left his before she began jumping around excitedly.

Chloe giggled and crouched down to give her Pokémon a gentle scratch behind her ears. "Great work, Eevee!"

"Eievuivuivui!"

"Now we wait," Goh said.

As if on cue, Ash's stomach began to growl, and he rubbed it tenderly. "Aw… all of this explorin's made me hungry."

Chloe set her phone on the ground pointing slightly upwards to try and have it provide as much light as possible. "Well, while we wait, why don't we have the snack Faye made for us?"

Ash nodded, excitedly. "That sounds awesome! Let's dig in!"

The meal Faye had packed for them was a stack of veggies sandwiches with a spicy mayonnaise that gave it just enough sting to have Goh reaching for his drink bottle. The maid was gracious enough to refill it with tea after Goh had drunk all of his water on the way to Stone Town. He kept his face turned away from Ash and Chloe throughout. He didn't need them teasing him about his delicate palate while they were on a mission.

About half-way through the food that Faye had packed them, there was a loud sound that interrupted their quiet meal that echoed through the dark chamber. It sounded like a crashing, as though someone was walking right into one of the walls of the maze.

"What was that?" Chloe asked, looking around nervously.

"Do you think it was a Pokémon that wandered inside…?" Ash asked.

"We should check to make sure they're alright," Goh noted. "Inteleon, can you check on it for us?"

"Leon."

With that, Inteleon stood from the bowl he shared with Cinderace and Lucario and leapt to the side of the wall again, turning on his dark vision membranes as he lept around the maze.

"I hope it's not anything bad…" Chloe said as the Pokémon disappeared into the darkness.

Everything was quiet for a few moments before they heard the sound of leaping back.

"Inteleon," he said, landing in the light of the fireballs burning and the phones once more.

"Nothing, huh…? Maybe it was just a Pokémon and they left really quickly," Goh said with a shrug. "If they're not calling for help, they must not be lost in here."

Ash nodded. "Right. And no one comes up here anyway, right?"

A high pitched whistling began to sound from the hero's engine, and everyone turned their gaze to it. Even in the limited light from their phones and the fireballs, it was clear that the water was finally beginning to boil, and some steam was beginning to erupt. Everyone backed up from it, unsure as to what would happen.

The steam continued to blow out, and the machine began to spin. At first, it was grindingly slow, but as the heat and pressure built up inside, the aeolipile began to move faster and faster, and it began cranking the chain in the ceiling.

And as the chain began to move faster and faster, the entire temple seemed to come to life.

In the ceiling, dotted across it in a uniform fashion were small spots of light that were now blazing with life, illuminating the previously dark maze. The light was a pale orange that fit the fire-theming of the chamber. The three trainers stood up and rubbed their eyes, adjusting to the new light that filled the room.

"What… even happened?" Chloe asked.

"I wonder…" Goh asked. "Maybe the chain is tied to some sort of ancient generator? And the lights above are lit with electricity?"

Ash's eyes were wide with excitement. "OH MAN! I told you guys that science was amazing! I can't believe it!"

Chloe blinked. "Neither can I…" she said. "This is an ancient temple, right?"

"Well, you do always hear rumors of lost civilizations that were more advanced than later ones… maybe this civilization was able to harness electricity in a way that made this possible…"

"Grooki…"

After that explanation, there was the sound of a stone slab sliding down with a crash. All three of them, as well as all the Pokémon present jumped in surprise. Dracovish began stomping, looking around with its large, strangely shaped head. Ash pulled out his Poké Balls quickly and recalled both Dracovish and Lucario into them.

Goh nodded. "Yeah. You two can take a break, too," he said, pulling Cinderace and Inteleon back within his Poké Balls.

Chloe quickly cleaned up after their lunch break, and they left the spinning hero's engine as they returned to the sealed lightning door. As they predicted, the door had fallen, letting them into the next chamber. Goh could already see that the path angled upwards, so it wouldn't be quite as far underground as the previous one. As well, the clay bricks in this room seemed to have a yellow tint.

The lights were on in this chamber as well, and from the sight of things, it looked to be another maze. Though as he looked at the ceiling, his eye was drawn to something strange about it.

Pikachu's cheeks sparked as they entered the room, and even Chloe's ponytail seemed to be standing up on it's own.

The trio looked up and saw that the ceiling to this room wasn't flat like the previous one. Instead, it was an inverted pyramid, pointing down to a raised platform in the center of the maze. They couldn't see the top of the raised platform, but they did see that there were apparently stairs that would let them stand upon it if they navigated the maze properly.

Chloe took out her notebook paper once again. "Are you going to send out Inteleon again?" she asked.

Goh shook his head. "Since we can see, I think it's okay to let him rest for a bit. Just keep makin' that map."

"Got it!"

Ash pulled on the bill of his hat. "Let's go, everyone!"

"Pikachu!"

As they walked around the maze, Pikachu's cheeks continued to spark at regular intervals. After about the fifth time, Ash stopped. "Buddy, are you feeling alright?" he asked.

Pikachu closed his eyes for a moment, and his ears twitched as though he was trying to listen for something. "Pikapi, pikapika pikachu pika."

Ash looked up. "So there's some sorta electric charge in here?"

"Pikachu."

Goh frowned at their talk. He knew Pikachu and Ash were close, but being unable to understand half of the conversation that he was supposed to be a part of made him feel like he was listening to someone having a phone call.

"That makes sense," Chloe said. "I mean, that chain from the other room is clearly in the ceiling of this room. If it's an ancient sort of generator, then maybe this is the room that houses it."

"...or maybe this room also makes use of it," Goh said. He looked at Pikachu more closely. "Does Pikachu think that the charge is constant, or does it come through only to leave a little bit later…?"

Pikachu, upon hearing the question, turned to Ash. "Pikapika."

"He says it's intermittent," Ash explained.

"That's interesting…" Goh said, thinking deeply about the situation.

"Goh? Have you figured out this room's trick?" Chloe asked.

He shook his head. "Not yet. Let's get to that middle section, though. I feel like it'll make more sense when we get there."

The trio continued their walking as Chloe continued making the map, though at least Eevee didn't have to hold onto the Phone for now, so instead she walked alongside Chloe, doing her best not to get caught tripping her trainer. Eevee's attention was turned to Chloe, watching her with her big, brown eyes. Goh found himself smiling at the sight. Despite being still relatively new to each other, Chloe and Eevee seemed to be operating in perfect sync.

It was here that Grookey tapped Goh in the head with his stick, to prevent the boy from walking right into a wall. He turned and whispered his gratitude to the Pokémon as he stepped a bit more quickly and caught up to Ash, walking side by side with him.

As they rounded the next corner, they saw that there were stairs in front of them. Looking up, the inverted pyramid was now overhead. With a confident smirk, Goh strode forward, rushing to the stairs.

Pikachu's cheeks sparked again, indicating the surge of electricity was becoming active. The sparking ended as quickly as it began though, and the three friends ascended the stairs quickly as they worked around the central raised platform leading to the top, close to where it met the inverted pyramid.

Once they were up top, they saw a small hole in the middle of the platform, directly under the point of the inverted pyramid above them. Set at each of the four corners were metal rods each with different tops.

Ash stepped towards the middle and began reaching a hand towards the tip of the inverted pyramid.

"Ash, stop!"

When Goh shouted at him, he quickly retracted his hand. "What? What's wrong?"

"I think that's where the electric charge that's been bothering Pikachu has been coming from."

Ash's eyes went wide and he took a step back. Sure enough, just as he did, the tip of the pyramid crackled and snapped with electricity. It looked like it would strike down at the top of the platform they were on at any moment as they stood there, watching. Only… that moment never came, and the crackling electricity subsided.

Looking at what was around them, Goh was struck with inspiration. "Wait, I think I know what we're supposed to do here," he said.

He stepped forward and pulled on one of the metal rods, and sure enough it came loose easily.

"Goh?" Chloe asked. "What are you doing?"

Once he had all four rods, he stepped back and took a closer look at them. The rods all had different shapes at their ends, but even a child could see that each of the rod's shapes could fit together.

"I think if we fit all these pieces together, we can put it in the middle spot, and when the electricity crackles again, it might jump into this."

Ash gasped. "Like a lightning rod!"

"Right!" Goh replied. "And that electric current will probably open the door to the next chamber."

Chloe frowned. "I mean…" she said, shrugging. "We haven't even seen the next door yet, but the inscription earlier did say there would be multiple trials, right?"

"Exactly!" Goh said confidently. "Trust me, this'll work. We've just gotta time it so I won't be holding it when the surge comes through, since I don't want to get shocked." He turned to Ash, but his eyes were on the mouse on his shoulder. "Pikachu, can you tell me when it's safe to put the rod in after it's finished?"

"Pikachu!" he said with a nod.

It took only a few moments for Goh to fit the pieces together. As he did, Pikachu watched the inverted pyramid. The air was tense for a moment as they waited for the surge to travel back through.

"Pi!"

Pikachu's cheeks sparked once more, and everyone held their breath for a moment. Goh felt a bead of sweat roll down his cheek as his hands gripped the metal rod in his hands.

Pikachu turned to him. "Chu, pikapikachu!"

"Right! Here I go!"

At Pikachu's signal, Goh rushed into the middle of the platform and quickly inserted the rod into the middle hole. The combined rod stood much taller than any of the four pieces did, nearly touching the tip of the inverted pyramid now.

Goh returned to the stairs leading back down into the maze where his friends were waiting, a confident feeling in his heart that definitely showed on his face. "Easy as pie," he said. "Now we just wait until the electricity surges through again and completes the circuit!"

They all waited in silence for a moment on bated breath. Goh watched the pyramid and the rod closely, waiting for the moment in which the electricity surged through the rod.

As he stared intensely, suddenly everything went dark.

Everything was silent for a moment longer before someone spoke up.

"Goh? Ash?" Chloe asked. "Did… all the lights just go out?"

"Yeah… I think they did," Ash said.

All three of them quickly scrambled for their phones and once again they were using them to light up the area and each other.

Goh frowned. "I guess the power went out. Maybe the aeolipile stopped spinning?"

"Why would it do that?" Ash asked.

"Well, it's powered by steam, so I guess it stopped making it. Either it ran out of water to turn into steam, or more likely, without a constant source of heat, the water inside the chamber cooled to the point where it stopped turning into steam."

Chloe sighed. "We should have figured that'd happen…"

"No sweat," Goh said. "I'll just go handle it myself! Inteleon, Cinderace, and I can figure out what to do to keep it spinning. You two can sit tight here and I'll be right back."

Ash nodded. "Got it. We'll be here waitin' for ya, Goh. We'll be able to see if something changes once the electricity's back on."

Chloe watched him with her emerald eyes, and her expression was less confident than Ash's. "Be careful, okay?"

He gave her a smile and a nod and patted her shoulder as he walked past her.

"Wait!"

Goh turned around to see Chloe handing him the map she had been making. "Use this to help navigate your way around until you catch back up to us."

He took it, smiling gently. "Thanks, Chloe."

"You can thank me properly by not getting into trouble while we wait here," she said, a teasing tone in her voice.

He couldn't help but smile back at her before turning and heading into the darkness of the maze.

With the map assisting him, it didn't take nearly as long to make his way back through the yellow and red mazes as it did the team's first attempt, even when Inteleon was helping them cheat their way through. Goh quickly found himself back at the aeolipile, and it had indeed stopped spinning. Using his phone as a light, he looked around to make sure the steam engine simply didn't break, but a quick check assured him that wasn't the case. Looking up, the chain also seemed to still be attached. He reached for the lid, making sure it had cooled enough to be touched. Thankfully, in the time that he had taken to backtrack to this point, the lid had cooled enough so that it wouldn't burn him to touch it. He let out a sigh of relief.

Opening it up, there was still some water inside, though much less than they started with. "So the problem is both of them, huh…?" he said out loud.

This would require a multi-faceted solution.

He reached into his pockets and pulled out the Poké Balls containing Inteleon and Cinderace again, releasing them into the darkness with two great flashes of light.

"Derace?" he asked, his ears twitching.

"Tele?"

"Inteleon, can you refill the container here? We'll need it to be able to spin for a long time once we get moving. We don't know what the next trial after the one we're currently stuck on will be."

"Leon," he said, nodding in response. He walked to the aeolipile and began spraying water from his fingers into it.

"Cinderace, you and I'll be going outside and finding some wood we can use as firewood to keep it hot and the water boiling. Maybe some moss, too, to help kindle the flame."

"Cinder!" he said, pumping his fist, grinning widely. Looking at his first Pokémon, Goh wondered if Cinderace's expression resembled his own somewhat, but quickly put the thought aside. They had work to do.

Using his phone as well as Chloe's map, finding his way through the maze was simple enough, but once he returned to the long stairs, he noticed something strange.

The footprints they had left in the dust were different than they ought to have been. There seemed to be two more sets of footprints on top, as well as prints he was sure belonged to a Pokémon.

The pit of his stomach suddenly began to feel very heavy.

"Cinderace," his partner said, putting a paw on his shoulder. Goh nodded and cracked a smile.

"Thanks. I'm just overthinking things, I bet."

"Grooki!" chimed in the chimp.

The three of them ascended the stairs together and stepped out once more into the sunlight. The heat of the afternoon sun was upon them now, even though fall was upon them. It wasn't quite far enough in the season for it to be cold even in the afternoons, but there would still hopefully be enough sticks and branches that had fallen that there would be a good amount of firewood for them to collect.

As soon as he stepped out of the temple, though, Goh saw that he and his friends' footprints in the dirt had been superseded here as well with other footprints.

The dread he had been feeling intensified.

"Let's collect what we can, quick."

"Dace."

Goh, Grookey, and Cinderace scoured the nearby brush and very quickly came up with the required materials they'd need to keep the fire going for much longer than simply heating with the Pyro Balls had gone before. Taking care to gather some rocks into his backpack as well to help construct and contain the fire, the boy and his Pokémon returned to the temple, using the light of the Rotom Phone to light the way back down the steps and through the maze.

When they had arrived, Inteleon was nowhere to be seen at first, but then quickly came into view as he dropped his camouflage.

"Inteleon," he said with a nod.

"...did you hear or see anyone come through here?" Goh asked his Pokémon as he began constructing the fire, something he had only had to do rarely before.

Inteleon shook his head 'no', and so Goh tried to put it out of his thoughts.

The fire was easily constructed, and Cinderace's Pyro Ball made lighting it even easier, and so Goh and his Pokémon sat and waited for the water to boil again and the lights to turn back on.

Sitting there, staring at the fire reminded him of those moments in the past where he would sit at his computer, surfing the internet and scouring message boards for information. By his side would be the microwaved dinner that he had made, since his parents were out working and his grandmother had her own life to attend to and couldn't be his constant caretaker. He filled the hole inside himself with his pursuit of that spark that made him feel that amazement and wonder. That moment, one summer day where the impossible became fact and myth became reality.

His lips curled around the word as he spoke it into being.

"Mew."

He thought about his obsession those days with the creature he had seen but once, and how he poured his energy into learning all he could about it. He searched websites for any mention of sights of it, coming across debates between many researchers who were then and even now still debating on if it even existed. To many, it was just a mirage. Others, still, thought that it used to exist, but now was extinct. Very few believed it yet lived, and despite Goh posting that he had seen it, without proof his accounts would be mocked and derided, so he would delete his online profiles as he continued his search, which funneled him into the darker and deeper parts of the internet as he searched for just one person who believed him and just one more ounce of proof that the Mythical Pokémon Mew was out there.

It was a profoundly lonely existence.

His contemplation was broken by the whistling of the aeolipile, and the grinding sound by which it came to life. Goh and his Pokémon stood and stepped back, and the machine began to spin, cranking the chain and bringing the lights back on.

"Let's get back to the others," he said.

Using the map once more to rush through the maze, he crossed the threshold into the yellow chamber, only to stop, with his voice catching in his throat.

He could see them from the doorway since they stood on the raised platform.

Standing atop the middle platform were not his friends. Instead, it was a group he was familiar with, and one he now realized was the true infiltrators from earlier.

A man with lavender hair stood next to a woman with long maroon hair. Their backs were turned to him, thankfully, but he recognized their white outfits and black gloves and boots. On the front of their uniforms, he was sure he'd see the red 'R' of their organization. By their feet was a cream colored Pokémon with a curled tail.

Lying on the ground at their feet were Ash and Chloe, tied up and restrained by large metal cuffs that held their arms in place so they couldn't reach for their Poké Balls or any other tools. The two Pokémon they had with them were each sealed in a container that looked to be made of glass, each of them pawing desperately at the glass towards their partners.

And the air was filled with the mocking laughter of Team Rocket.