20 hours before Juliana's disappearance

Looker actively pursed crises. He'd have been fired or, worse, demoted a long time ago if he didn't. Odd radio signals coming from a building swarming with thugs? No problem. The skies have darkened as an ancient pokémon deity is awakened to do the bidding of a deranged psychopath? That was Tuesday. It was this constant excitement that had spurred headquarters to send him on so-called low-priority missions like these, simple investigations done in good faith with regions around the world. Apparently, someone in the human resources department at the International Police was excessively concerned about his mental health and had been given too much influence over Looker's schedule. He was fortunate that crises had found their way to Looker in lieu of him being able to make the trip personally. Any more questions from Nemona about what kind of pokémon the "bad guys" liked to use might have driven him out of the flying taxi mid-transport. Let HR try to explain that. Conversation had mercifully died when a bright light from their destination had come into view. Looker had seen a few of these while flying around, but this one was more luminous and felt more ominous than the others. The way it had pulled Larry and Nemona's attention made this light much more noteworthy. Even their flying taxi had refused to land close to it, depositing them reluctantly a small walk away from Team Star's Segin Squad base.

As the trio jogged over to where a small gathering of students had amassed outside the base's entrance, Looker filed away the mostly useless information he'd obtained on the flight. Something about Looker's disposition must have given Nemona the wrong idea about him to the point that even now she was ignoring the question he'd just asked about the strange light. Perhaps it was because he'd deceived her when they first met, or the fact that he was deceiving her now. That wasn't his fault, but she was still choosing to blame him for it by interrogating him about all the classified information he couldn't tell her before switching to the silent treatment. Looker had tried to be as vague as possible on both this case and past ones, but Nemona's eye for detail extended beyond her battling abilities and deep into Looker's mind. It was a firm reminder that he didn't like trainers who couldn't take hints. The most annoying part of the girl's interrogations was that they had nothing to do with the most important facts. What kind of pokémon did the bad guys like to use? How skilled were they? Did they fight all at once or one at a time? These sorts of picayune questions toed the line between being legal and not legal to answer, making it difficult for Looker to keep straight in his head what he should be answering. He was fairly certain that he'd read up on torture interrogation techniques not entirely dissimilar to this.

Larry was of no use, a growing trend that bothered Looker as well. His ability to provide something positive to the investigation at hand had only decayed in Looker's mind once the person of interest files had been handed off to him. Sure, Larry made the disguise at Uva Academy unnecessary, but that only ended up making Looker's persona more believable. Had Looker been alone, he wouldn't have been forced to reveal himself. The opportunity to catch a potential culprit off guard had been too good to pass up. It was quickly becoming apparent that the only method of accomplishing a task that Larry would accept was the straightforward path, no less and certainly no more. His bluff about the police sending him when nobody else was right for the job was sounding hauntingly prophetic right now. Fortunately, they were encroaching on a position where Looker could put his two irksome companions in the back of his mind and let him exist in his element.

Unlike most organized crime syndicates, Team Star was comprised entirely of juveniles from the academy. Rather than stealing pokémon, their lawbreaking had consisted of common teenage misdemeanors like cutting class, vandalism, and sparking an upheaval of every professor position at Uva Academy. The academy had somehow exculpated them and allowed them to persist as a way of helping the students train in battling skill, a decision Looker abhorred but had no interest in trying to correct. If these was the worst criminals Paldeans could engender, they should count themselves fortunate. This particular base belonged to the Segin Squad, a fact that Looker absorbed but had no importance to place on yet other than their fondness for dark type pokémon. Aside from the massive black flags planted around the base emblazoned with some odd permutation of the Team Star logo and Uva Academy's insignia, the thing that drew Looker's attention was the crowd of students standing outside the gates to the base. Some of them were milling about or waiting on their own flying taxi to leave, but most of them were watching some sort of struggle taking place right outside the gate. When she noticed this, Nemona was the first to spring forward despite having no idea what was going on. "Hey, break it up!" she ordered, sprinting past her companions.

Looker considered running himself then thought better of it. If things got truly violent, he would act. There was no sense risking trust he hadn't really won yet by barreling toward a group of strangers without clear purpose. Larry either thought similarly or had no desire to run this morning. Now that he could observe more carefully, Looker noticed that an older student was being held back from charging into the base by several other students. The older student was wearing headphones and clutching a laptop like it meant more to him than his life. His outfit consisted of a black leather jacket and pants over the traditional school uniform, marking him as one of the people in Larry's files. When everyone heard Nemona's voice, they paused momentarily, forgetting their duty as guardsmen. The boy collapsed forward, unprepared for the weight on him to go slack. As he rose to his feet again while trying to look like he'd meant to do that, Nemona took the opportunity to get between him and the entrance. The boy was unconcerned with this turn of events. "Good, you showed." He spoke in a nasally voice that didn't match his long dark hair or resting scowl. "Got a real sitch here. Was worried our calls weren't getting through now of all times. You brought backup, right?"

"They weren't," Nemona clarified, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm here on other business. Giacomo, right? What's going on?"

Giacomo sighed, his anticipation of the situation being mollified deflating somewhat. "Least you could do is remember my name. My pokémon sure won't forget it anytime soon, but that checks, given it's you. Basically, a tera den appeared right as we were preparing to set up shop for the day. I wanted it to get handled myself, but ya' know the rules and all, and Ms. Tyme would tear me a new one if she found out. So I dropped a line for assistance, but nobody showed. First thought: duh, the den's busting up communications. Our tech's still kicking though, so it's more like the signal's being shot down, garbled. Weird, right?"

It was weird, but not unexpected. Looker had been having trouble with communications ever since arriving in Paldea. Tera dens were known to have adverse effects on technology, even rotom phones. What captured Looker's imagination was the idea that such an event was allowed to persist in the first place. Were all the Team Star bases so disorganized, allowing students to mill about aimlessly without any semblance of Academy presence? The report Looker was going to file grew a few pages longer in his head as he refocused on the task at hand. Arven's connection strength had been an impressive feat, and not one Looker had overlooked. This tera den couldn't persist for the sake of his mission. "That's a problem," Nemona muttered. "If it's disrupting the airwaves, it's gotta be a five star at least, probably six. Oh, this is Looker, he's a police guy or something, and you know Larry. They're here on business too. Lots of business going around today."

Giacomo eyed Looker up and down, unimpressed. Looker had been careful to instruct Nemona to let him introduce himself should the need to hide his affiliations arise, but that had clearly been a waste of time. "Huh. Doesn't read like a cop. You any good in a scrape?"

"If the moment calls for it," Looker replied evenly, evaluating Giacomo just as he was being evaluated.

He was tall, lanky for someone who was supposed to be in his last year of education. His posturing to appear cool and competent revealed a distinct lack of confidence to Looker, a desperation to be accepted that elicited pity. Essentially, he was a typical student who didn't feel like he deserved his current position but had nowhere safe to jump down from the pedestal he'd been placed on. The delinquent nodded confidently, mentally passing Looker on his private investigation report right as Looker finished looking down on him. "You'll do. Just don't kill the vibe. Speaking of which, Larry, you in?"

"A six star is too dangerous for non-champion students," Larry shook his head. "The league can't endorse this. Too much paperwork."

"Define this rating system for me," Looker added. "What about this tera den makes it so dangerous?"

Realizing that she'd gotten ahead of herself, Nemona turned to finally address one of Looker's questions for a change. "Right, sorry, you're new. Tera dens are created by pokémon that absorbed way too much tera energy from Area Zero. Once it gets to be too much for them they burrow underground then the den pops out of the ground like whoosh! The only way to get rid of them is to defeat the pokémon inside. The star system is how we determine how tough those pokémon are before going in, with seven stars being the strongest and rarest. Although, um, the league has been considering reorganizing the system with how strong the tera raids have been getting recently. If you've done enough raids though, you can get an idea of what you're dealing with just by looking at the things." Nemona pointed inside the base, where the faint glow could still be seen over the morning sun.

The shimmering light, rather than being inviting, was a foil to the daylight around it, sucking in the sunshine to hold the attention of all onlookers captive. Looker found the glow fascinating, but not enough to hold his own attention as Nemona continued. "Every den is controlled by a single pokémon of a random tera type. You can scan it with your rotom phone to find out which one if you have the app for it. The larger ones can disturb people and electrical equipment if left alone, so there's usually some LP in it for getting rid of them. Oh, to do that, you have to beat the pokémon in the den, usually with a squad of four. That causes it to collapse."

"Simple enough," Looker mused, fixing his gaze back on the light while he wondered how much of the top student's explanation was accurate. "I suppose those pokémon in that den are stronger than the average combatant though."

"Ya'd do well in a class with our first-years," Giacomo probably complemented. "Four people are supposed to go in for these things. Any less and you risk getting wiped out by the tera pokémon instantly. Any more and you're gonna destabilize the den, and that's no good for anybody."

"Why not just destroy the den from the outside and flush the pokémon out?" Looker asked.

Nemona thumbed in the direction of the crystal. "You're welcome to see for yourself. If you're going in, it's good to know what you're up against."

Looker hadn't agreed to go in, but investigating this technically fell within the parameters of his mission statement. Part of his orders had involved trying to figure out exactly what was going on with the darkening skies over Paldea, and sudden dangerous tera den appearances definitely fell in that category. After ordering the remaining students to remain outside the base, Giacomo led everyone inside. Entering the base proper, Looker's investigative gaze first fell on the construction of the base itself. It was a modified version of the open wild areas of Paldea, with cliffs surrounding multiple tents emblazed with the hybrid insignia Looker had seen outside. Several metal ramps and other pathways had been installed to help students get around, but the whole area still resembled a temporary dwelling for overenthusiastic campers. The lone exception was a larger tent toward the back of the area. Behind the massive partially drawn curtains was an expansive set of computer equipment that Looker couldn't identify with a glance. All he could be sure of was that it all appeared to both be on and vital to the functioning of the base by how the black wires coming out of it surged out in every direction. Rumors of a direct connection between this base and Area Zero were clearly not entirely unfounded. No students were milling around, meaning that everyone had been effectively evacuated. In an instant Looker took all of this information in and focused his attention on the giant glowing rock in the center of some sort of battle arena.

Nemona hadn't been kidding about the tera den being indestructible as his growlithe exhausted all of its moves without so much as scratching it. Brilliant yellow light glimmered at Looker, forcing him to shield his eyes as he approached closer. Crystals jutted out in random patterns to create a formation that was nearly three times Looker's size. Though he couldn't check it with his phone, Looker could sense an onerous presence just by being in close proximity to the den, a sensation not unlike that of being in enemy territory. Facing Looker was a mouth that seemed to lead directly into the crystal formation. The entrance was pitch dark, making it impossible to see what he'd be walking into. If he squatted down he'd be able to barely fit inside, but taking that risk wasn't worth it yet. Giacomo, Larry, and Nemona followed Looker at a slower pace, having seen this phenomenon plenty of times between the three of them. Giacomo usually took care of raids that appeared near his base on principle, Nemona actively sought out raids she could fight by herself, and Larry was responsible for doing the remote raids that nobody else wanted to deal with. Looker wasn't aware of it, but he'd stumbled into one of the favored pastimes of the region's strongest Paldean trainers, and two of the three trainers surrounding him were at least somewhat interested in the new toy that had just dropped into their playpen. "Mismagius, electric tera type. Five-star raid," Giacomo reported, holding up his phone. "I was planning on icing this thing myself, but it looks like backup arrived just in time. We won't be able to call home base and ask permission until this is resolved, so do you three-"

"Obviously yes!" Nemona cut the boy off. "It'll be easy, so I give us permission as student council president! Larry, Looker, let's do this first!"

That Nemona could be so easily distracted from her objective bothered Looker more than it should. Ever since Larry had suggested talking to this champion, he'd considered it a mistake. She clearly knew nothing, and if it weren't for her close ties to Juliana, Looker would have left her in her dorm a long time ago. Instead, he was babysitting her while she ran errands and went gallivanting off to the first interesting pokémon that caught her eye and looked strong enough to last five seconds with her. The only reason that Looker was considering the proposal was the benefit of having communications in the area improve. It was disconcerting to hear that these tera dens were disrupting the air waves. That was usually a weak signal of a greater issue that would threaten much more than the wi-fi of nearby phones if left unattended. Any data he collected on his suspects or partner was a bonus. "Essentially we only need to enter that hole, confront the pokémon all at once, and win?" Looker asked for confirmation to a few nods.

"They usually don't take long," Larry added, already selecting a pokémon from his belt. "You chip it down and beat it fast or it beats you fast. It should be fast, at least."

With this encouraging assessment, the decision had been made. Giacomo was more than willing to accept the help, even from a stranger, and after informing everyone at the gate of their intentions, the group prepared to go spelunking for tera pokémon. As the least experienced member, Looker was placed in the middle of the pack, behind Giacomo and in front of Larry. Unease suddenly encroached upon Looker as the difference in height between him and the entrance became more obvious with each passing step. He bore no fear of cramped spaces, but he wasn't fond of having his evasive options reduced in the event of an attack. "It's bigger on the inside. They go deep underground, but there's always a way out," Larry explained like it made sense.

"And these dens come from the ground?" Looker asked for clarification to Larry's nod.

How, then, did these dens have any relation to the issues with Paldea? Perhaps the source of the great crater's energy was seeping through the grounds of the region itself. If that were the case, the status of the region was more perilous than Looker initially presumed. He chided his organization silently for letting things deteriorate to this point. The more pressing matter on Looker's mind, however, was the ability to return the way they came after entering. Larry's only advice had been to stay focused on where he wanted to go, which was fine when one could see accurately, but being in the darkness threw a sizeable wrench in that plan. Still, building trust with his partners required some sort of give on his end. If this was to be his moment for that, so be it. "We'll only be able to use one pokémon at a time in there, to keep things from getting out of hand," Giacomo explained. "Nemona, take point."

Unbothered by being ordered around so long as it ended in a pokémon battle, Nemona took the lead and crouched to get into the den. Immediately she vanished behind what Looker now could identify as an artificial wall of darkness. "Suppose this could suffice as my good deed for the day then," Looker informed the hole before the rest of the party departed into the den, crouching down in order to fit.

After several minutes of fumbling around, the darkness Looker had been watching carefully suddenly lit up yellow. It was a blinding light, not unlike a flashbang, and Looker was grateful that his instincts had trained him to protect his eyes when dealing with unknown situations. Only as the light dimmed back into darkness did Looker realize that he'd somehow managed to lose his escorts despite only going one way. The air in the den was about 10 degrees cooler than it was outside, meaning that the pokémon either liked it cold or the den around him didn't conduct heat very well. For the sake of his underdressed friend behind him he hoped for the latter. Now fully on guard, Looker continued his march.

As Looker proceeded what he presumed was the way forward, sounds started to assault his ears. Whispers of tortuous pain and death were filling his eardrums, rattling the obdurate man to his core and forcing him to pause. This was a common tactic employed by mismagius to keep humans and pokémon alike away from it, but it seemed that an additional effect of the tera den was that it was amplifying the pokemon's power. Looker clutched one ear as he took a knee. There had to be some way to block it out. If he lagged behind any further, he might lose his team for good. His allies hadn't specified whether these tera dens had any sort of maze-like structure to them, but now wasn't the best time to find out. Looker's first thought was to employ growlithe, but in this close proximity he would just immobilize himself. Before he could make a decision, music started blasting from somewhere ahead of him. A guitar solo was followed by some rock song that sounded like Looker would have enjoyed it several decades ago. The only possible explanation for such a racket had to be Giacomo. Nemona wasn't carrying anything capable of making that noise, and the boy had been toting a laptop and headphones with him. As he searched for the source of the sound with his ears, the piercing whisper wails of his foe were drowned out by the music, either because it was too loud or because the mismagius was trying to put an end to it. Either way, it worked in Looker's favor. He allowed his hand to leave his pocket and rose to a standing crouch just as Larry appeared at his side. The man said something to him, but Looker couldn't even begin to hear it. His lips sounded like they were saying "keep moving," but Looker couldn't be sure.

Taking the hint either way, Looker followed the sound to the depths of the cave. The whispering and music grew steadily louder until the cavern suddenly opened up, revealing the source of the brilliant glow as well as the two companions Looker had entered the cave with. Nemona had already released what Looker presumed a pawmot was while Giacomo was making use of a kingambit. In a corner of the den, on a small raised pedestal, was a pokémon that Looker more easily recognized on sight. A mismagius was hovering in front of them, its entire body coated in what Looker recognized as terastilization energy. On its head was a massive garish lightbulb that emitted artificial light. According to his briefing, that confirmed that he was currently dealing with an electric type pokémon rather than a ghost type pokémon. That wasn't a large concern either way, but it would be more difficult to deal effective damage due to the unfortunate typing and ability combo. Larry and Nemona were unperturbed, as if they'd dealt with this exact situation before. Looker withdrew and sent out his growlithe to join the fray while Larry employed a starraptor. Despite the situation, Looker found his attention being drawn to his assigned partner's pokémon.

Ignoring the poor typing choices, Looker was impressed by the starraptor. Its coat was shiny to the point that some of the tera den light reflected off of it. He couldn't tell if the pokémon rarely saw battle or was just pampered, but the sharpness of the pokemon's talons was made evident when it dug into the solid tera rock and managed to scratch it slightly. The bird's head was turned away from him, giving it a sort of noble aura. As if it had been waiting for this situation, mismagius emitted a terrible wail, the force of the scream driving everyone back a step. "Go now, before it can overwhelm us!" Nemona ordered over the sound of the music and mismagius' caterwauling. "Pawmot, ice punch!"

Pawmot obeyed, darting forward with the icy fist at the ready. Mismagius took the attack as growlithe looked to Looker and received a nod. That was all that was required for flamethrower to erupt from growlithe's mouth. At the same time, starraptor burst forward, its stance prepared to use close combat. Whether the mismagius was aware that the move could now hit it or not, it chose to respond to starraptor first by sending a wreath of pink flames in its direction. Starraptor made no attempt to dodge, weathering the brunt of the flames in order to ensure that its own blow landed. The entire area in front of Looker was alight in flames as both pokémon caught in it cried out. Pawmot scrambled backward to avoid getting burnt, but even it was caught in a bit of the crossfire. Blinking, Looker realized that he hadn't signaled his intentions to his partners and cursed at himself mentally. Pokémon battles were complicated enough when there was only two pokémon to keep track of. Five was usually beyond him, at least when it came to organized scuffles. Fortunately, Giacomo was lightening his cognitive load by not doing anything. Rather, kingambit was performing some sort of strange dance that looked like a swords dance, biding his time. Had Looker not just seen mismagius shake off three strong attacks like it was nothing, he'd be questioning that move. "Keep building your power!" Looker called out. "We-"

"No time!" Giacomo countered as the music shifted in tone. "It'll wipe these status changes off the record soon! Gotta strike while the song's still playing! Kowtow cleave!" Giacomo ordered, commanding his pokémon to charge forward.

Mismagius hadn't remained idle during the exchange. A mystical fire was heading toward the retreating pawmot while growlithe had a shadow ball bearing down on it. Having to make a snap decision, Looker realized that kingambit would be stopped if both his and Nemona's pokémon allowed it to launch another attack. Nodding to growlithe, the pokémon used agility to avoid the attack while slamming into pawmot. This left growlithe in the direct way of the next attack, but that was all by design. The mystical fire swirled around growlithe before being absorbed. Growlithe howled in triumph as Nemona, following Looker's plan immediately, gave him a thumbs up. "Use it, Pawmot! Quick attack!"

Pawmot recovered instantly, bouncing off of the nearest wall and darting forward while shrouded in white light. This was complemented by a powered-up flamethrower flung in mismagius' direction, courtesy of growlithe. The tera pokémon wasn't ready for such a quick counter, and both attacks slammed into it with deadly force. Mismagius was driven back, but it was far from beaten. Just as Giacomo's strike was to land, another piercing wail sent all nearby combatants flying backwards. A yellow screen appeared between the combatants and mismagius to slow the battle's pace down considerably. The disturbing cries that had existed mostly for effect before now seemed to be adversely affecting all the pokémon in the arena. Giacomo hadn't been exaggerating about the transitory nature of his boosting move, and he turned up his own music to compensate and give Looker a headache in one fell swoop. "That's a light screen!" Giacomo pointed out helpfully. "It's getting ready to dig its heels in!"

Looker could have figured that, but what happened next was new to him. The shiny coating that had identified mismagius as a tera pokémon began to glow ever brighter, rays of light coming off of it and hardening until a sort of crystal dome had been formed around the pokémon. Vaguely he recalled being briefed on something like this. When a pokémon entered this state, it would take another terastilized pokémon to break it out of its shell. That meant the most effective thing he could do was keep mismagius busy. "Don't let up!" Looker ordered, inspiring growlithe to lose another flamethrower.

The flames flew around the shield and light screen combination harmlessly, but they did grab mismagius' attention. It launched several shadow balls in multiple directions, but most of them were directed at growlithe. Looker bit his lip, counting on the speed boost agility had granted the fire-type to allow it to dodge. Fortunately, he was right. Growlithe nimbly evaded the encroaching blobs of concentrated shadows, landing gracefully in front of its trainer. Really, Looker had no reason to be worried. Growlithe was one of his first pokémon partners, and it had seen him through far worse scrapes than this. His giving commands was wholly unnecessary, and a sign that he might have accidentally started enjoying himself. This was unacceptable while he was in the middle of a battle. "Alright, now it's our turn!" Nemona cheered, withdrawing a tera orb from her bag. "Get ready pawmot, we're gonna-" Nemona cut herself off as she realized that mismagius was currently hurtling through the air involuntarily.

In the time that she'd been speaking, Nemona had actually been stalling for time to allow the shadow balls to disperse. It had only occurred to one of their party members that these shadow balls were ineffective against one of their pokémon. Starraptor, now terastilized into the normal type, crashed into mismagius at full speed. A brilliant orange glow complemented the shiny new coat that starraptor was wearing, and only now did Looker realize that the pruning wasn't just for show. The brilliant glow on starraptor's face made it painfully obvious that the pokémon was poisoned, likely by the design of Larry himself. Combined with façade, the mismagius didn't stand a chance. "Type matchups are important," Larry unenthusiastically informed his foe as it went crashing into a wall.

Nemona recovered from the sudden attack before mismagius, throwing her tera orb to terastilize pawmot into the fighting type. "Close combat! Don't let it recover!" she ordered.

"Yeah, do it!" Giacomo cheered, as if that would somehow have more of an effect than ordering kingambit to attack.

Pawmot surged forward, delivering a string of punches and kicks that looked decidedly hilarious to everyone except mismagius given its stature. The protective barrier around mismagius began to weaken, cracks appearing in it before it shattered entirely. Though the pokémon wasn't defeated, the sudden burst had clearly weakened it. "My turn!" Giacomo announced as the song reached a crescendo. "Kingambit, finish it!" Kingambit repeated its movement for kowtow cleave, ready to put the mismagius down for good this time.

Starraptor and pawmot jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit. Mismagius attempted to move, but it stuttered in the air, unable to build up the speed necessary to evade after two brutal attacks. Kingambit bore down on its foe, and with one more cry, mismagius fell. Instantly the color in the room dimmed as mismagius' original protective coating shattered entirely and the pokémon sank to the ground, beaten unconscious. Looker instantly glanced up, fearing that the den they were in was about to follow suit, but things remained strangely serene for the moment. "We have time," Larry explained, noticing Looker's gaze. "Don't know why, but these things fade slowly."

"It certainly gives me enough time to do this!" Giacomo announced, pulling out a timer ball and hurling it at mismagius with terrifying speed.

The ball slammed into its target with a painful thud, capturing it without so much as a shake from its opponent. Having been beaten to the punch twice in as many minutes, Nemona jogged up to Giacomo with a pout. "Hey, how come you get to catch it, punk? Pawmot did all the work!"

"I didn't see you striking that epic final note," Giacomo retorted, closing his laptop to cut the music off. "Besides, you've got more pokémon than you can shake a sudowodo at. Let the rest of us play with the strong ones for a change."

Nemona opened her mouth to continue arguing but thought better of it. Looker raised an eyebrow. His admittedly limited experience with Nemona had told him that she would absolutely take that chance to continue causing problems while it was available. Instead, she recalled her pokémon and pointed toward the way they'd come. "Let's get out of here first," she insisted, already making for the exit.

On that point nobody would argue. The way back was much easier than the way there, with mismagius' influence dissipating from the area and allowing safe passage as a result. When they reached the mouth of the den and came out to a group of waiting students that had ignored Giacomo's order to stay put, Nemona revealed her master plan. "So it's decided. We battle for the mismagius to see who gets to keep it. It wouldn't be sporting of a former Team Star boss to run away from a challenge, would it?"

Giacomo, realizing what Nemona was doing, sighed as the students around him started cheering for the victory of their boss. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for him to weasel his way out of getting into a scrape with Nemona when all of his team was watching. Though disbanded, they still looked up to him as a leader, and part of Team Star's code had been to never turn down a direct challenge. With a battle already brewing, Looker sensed that he'd have a bit of time to collect himself. Motioning to Larry, Looker turned back to observe the tera den as it disappeared. The expansive cavern that he had just explored was somehow vanishing before his eyes like it had never been there in the first place. It made Looker wonder exactly what sort of power this tera phenomenon was actually capable of, but that could wait until his current investigation was finished. "These are common in the region, then?" He asked.

"You didn't have to join us," Larry responded without responding, already glancing at his phone more than his partner.

Looker shook his head. "This was a thing that had to be witnessed for myself. Otherwise I would believe you were trying to mislead me."

Larry said nothing as the rest of the tera den disappeared into the morning air. It felt crisp, real. Only then did Looker realize that the air inside the tera den had felt stale, like it was slowly running out on him. A sobering thought. "If you have a complaint about me, I'd prefer to hear it from you than from my boss," Larry informed Looker, still avoiding eye contact.

Where could Looker begin? Investigations shouldn't be carried out by what amounted to a glorified civilian. This was especially true when clear conflicts of interest were present. Until Looker was certain exactly what he was pursuing and why, he couldn't trust Larry's, or rather Geeta's intentions. And that was all ignoring Larry's sparkling garrulous personality. Still, the man hadn't flinched in the face of adversity, or in the face of anything in general. Throwing away a potential relationship would be foolish just to satisfy his irritation. "Our goals and the plan remain unchanged. The purpose of visiting Uva Academy was to obtain leads on Juliana's location. Since Arven seems to know something, the next step is to try tapping his phone. You're certain the fixed signal will be stronger here, yes?"

Larry nodded. "Yes, another purpose of this base is boosting rotom phone signals around the region. And Nemona?"

It took most of Looker's willpower not to ask about why that was the case. Everything he learned about the academy, the Paldea League, and their relationship only made things more disquieting to him. He'd have one interesting report to file back to headquarters in the next 24 hours. For now, Looker turned back to where Giacomo was being decidedly outplayed by Nemona and her pokémon. "We'll have to continue with the plan. Until we can confirm one way or the other what she actually knows, she stays within arm's length. The Arven boy I met and I will need to have another chat for me to be certain."

"So he actually knows something?"

"He knows something, but not everything. People can't hide their initial reactions to sudden changes, like, say, a policeman appearing in your face while you're chatting with a friend. Arven's reaction was surprised, but not nearly as much as he should have been for the situation. Someone, probably Juliana, prompted him to be ready for this development. Despite that, he didn't just hang up on me. That means he believes his innocence in this situation is valuable. The more information we get from him, the easier it will be to predict his movements, and in doing that trace him back to Juliana. He should already be paranoid after seeing me take my disguise off in front of him. He'll have a difficult time trusting strangers for a while."

"You're kinda scary, you know that?"

"Who's talking? You're the one who managed to transform your pokémon and take down that mismagius without anyone noticing. If it wasn't for that, the fight could have gotten a lot worse a lot faster."

Startled by the compliment, Larry buried his face in his phone in the first real show of emotion Looker could recall from the man. "Well, I suppose that's possible. We just happened to beat it fast."

Perhaps now was the best time. No, it was the best time. In several hours of passing interactions, Looker had obtained very little information. The castle that was Larry's personal expressions was guarded by a massive moat and numerous expressionless knights, preventing Looker from so much as looking in the general direction of where Larry's feelings laid. He knew where the man's allegiance was, but that wasn't necessarily the same thing as his emotions. Understanding that would be a key objective of his mission, something he'd determined long before checking in with his boss. A hand motion drew Larry to a more secluded area of the base, to a tree that had been spared by the appearance of the tera den. Leaning against it, Looker turned his gaze upward. "Why are you here?" He asked his partner.

"I was assigned to help you complete your mission to apprehend champion Juliana and recover the stolen item. We've been over this." The gates to Larry's castle remained stubbornly shut.

"And yet the question remains unanswered," Looker pointed out with a hint of challenge in his voice.

Somewhere in front of them Nemona cried out in shock. Apparently being a champion trainer didn't make you immune to dirty tactics employed by punks or detectives unwilling to play by the rules. "Let me ask this of you then, Larry. Why follow Geeta?"

"Why else? To make money," Larry shrugged. "Which I won't do if my morning report to her is late."

This was hopefully a lie, but Larry had yet to smile, let alone make a joke since Looker had known him. He wasn't getting anywhere again. Normally he'd have the comfort of taking his time, but Juliana wouldn't stay in one place forever. Knowing what she was doing was of her own volition was comforting, but it increased the pressure on him to discern what his ally was planning to do when they achieved their objective. "Look, we have a job to do. That should take precedence over everything else, shouldn't it?"

"Yes, yes we do," Looker admitted, pushing himself off of the tree in tandem with Giacomo's kingambit falling to the ground in defeat. "It would seem time grows short. Let's report in and reconvene."

Larry nodded, already starting off to make his phone call. Looker, on the other hand, had a different objective in mind. Though Larry was certainly half-listening, the only time Looker would be able to make this call with any semblance of privacy was while Larry was distracted by his boss. There was no way that Larry would allow him to make this call without his presence, but his mindless devotion to his boss came in handy in this instance. Pulling out his personal phone, one that was disconnected from the rotom network, Looker contacted Arven. It was a similar make to the one that Penny had created for herself, but this one had its own subnetwork of rotoms that were specifically used to identify and hone in on the exact location of the recipients of its calls. All Looker needed to do was get Arven talking. With the call placed, Looker got three rings before someone picked up. The phone didn't have video, which meant Arven had either disabled it or the signal was still garbled due to the tera den. Some communications hub this base had turned out to be. "Hello?" A small ping indicated that tracking had begun.

"Greetings, Arven. This is agent Looker of the International Police."

There was a pause on the line, identical to the one that Arven had employed last time they had a conversation. "I remember, yes."

"Thank you for not hanging up. You should know I have only the best of intentions for Juliana's welfare." This was true, at least on Looker's end. Criminals didn't learn anything from being treated like animals.

Another lengthy pause on Arven's end. This was good for Looker's mission, but it left him wary. The innocent were usually quick to defend themselves when accused, and Looker had all but accused Arven of conspiring to help hide Juliana. Checking his phone, he was about 30% of the way to homing in on Arven's location. "Would you be interested in meeting with me in person?" Looker asked, regretting that he'd been forced to speak twice in a row. "I'd like to meet with Juliana too, if possible. Is she with you?"

"No," Arven replied too quickly before pausing again. "You're wondering why I haven't hung up, aren't you?"

Looker was wondering that, but nothing would come out of admitting it. The pace of the conversation needed to belong to him.

40%

"You misunderstand me. I have no opinion on what Juliana has done. My only objective is to ensure her wellbeing." Lies could be treated as the truth as long as Looker believed them long enough.

"Yeah? You'll have to tell me what she's done in your words before I hang up." The threat felt hollow to Looker.

An intrusive thought struck the detective, sending him pacing for a moment. Was Arven truly as in the dark as he initially suspected? That would be his own motivation to stay on the line. Perhaps Juliana had asked for help without providing all the details, and Arven was helping out of some sense of obligation. It wouldn't be easy to hide what Juliana had stolen safely, but it wouldn't be impossible either. Perhaps this relationship would prove to be more effective than his relationship with Larry. "She's absconded with something that the Paldea League claims as their own," Looker explained vaguely. "I was tasked with bringing both her and it back to them."

55%

A curse could be heard on the other line. "I knew it. Damn it, Juliana, you have to tell me about these things in advance. The school didn't hire you, did it?"

Looker had lapsed in remembering that he'd identified himself as a representative of the school. In his understanding, however, the distinction was superficial. With Geeta standing at the head of both organizations, the body might as well be the same. "No. Deception is part of my business, sadly. If you're interested in the truth, Arven, know that I am personally responsible for the destruction of multiple evil organizations across most of the world's regions. It is my responsibility to infiltrate and disband organized crime wherever in the world it occurs. In short, I'm the person they call when failure isn't an option. Whatever the league decided Juliana has done to them, it's been classified as irredeemable."

Another pause on the line. Briefly Looker wondered if he'd laid on the stakes too thick. The point of this little scare tactic was to inspire Arven to make a mistake. Right now, they were two swordfighters standing in a field facing each other. No direct strike could be made without some sort of subterfuge, so Looker had raised his sword to the rising sun. With the harsh light of day in his eyes, Arven might make a slip and reveal something about Juliana's location that he shouldn't. At the same time, Arven was charging forward blindly yet cautiously at him, trying to obtain enough information to hang up before Looker could get what he wanted.

72%. He needed more.

"And you, my friend, appear to be caught in the middle. There's time to do the right thing here. You-"

"Don't lecture me about doing the right thing." Arven interrupted at 76%. "I know exactly what I'm doing. If a crime was committed, you're barking up the wrong tree. Unless there's something you're not telling me." A weak feint to Looker's side.

The detective made a snap decision that he ordinarily wouldn't. Gaining information was a delicate process that often required months, even years of working at a target until they felt comfortable enough to spill information. Looker had no such luxury. "Of course there is. The police lie to you, Arven. I'm in this for myself."

81%

"And it's because of that that I feel comfortable asking you to trust me. After all, your stake in this is personal too."

Arven hadn't expected to be called out like this. His next response was with forced calm, though stepping into Arven's strike range intentionally had flustered him. "Y-you're speaking awfully confidently."

"Why shouldn't I? I know what my mission is and how to go about accomplishing it. One thing a pokémon journey will never grant you is that sort of certainty, Arven. Now, I'm not trying to disparage your life choices, but this is the difference in our standing. You and I both know you know more than you're telling me. If you're actually interested in helping reach the truth, in letting that voice in your head telling you to do the right thing and get this burden off of your chest win, you'll agree to meet with me. I can guarantee yours and Juliana's safety in exchange for compliance."

"But not their freedom," Arven finished for the detective as the phone reached 90%. "No matter what happens, I'm going to lose them, especially when they didn't do anything. Don't you know how that feels? To have the people you care about ripped away from you, again and again? I'm done with that. For good." The thrust Looker had gone for had backfired, giving Arven the opportunity to flee from the battle entirely. He clearly hadn't valued his innocence as much as Looker had anticipated.

"Yes," Looker responded without thinking. "I know how you feel." The lie was so believable because it was the truth. Looker completely understood where the person on the other end of the phone was coming from, but not for the reasons he'd stated.

92%

"Hm. If you say so. Tell me, Looker, where are you right now?"

That was the sort of question Looker wished he could ask. It would be so much easier if people just handed out their locations when Looker asked them. Granted, most of his marks weren't too subtle, but everyone was allowed to have dreams, even him. "The Segin Squad base. Are you familiar with that location?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I know it. Sounds like you're too far away though. We won't be able to meet before the deadline."

"Explain," Looker demanded more forcefully than he intended, accidentally letting his stance falter.

"Can't, even if I wanted to," Arven waved off. "If it was something that could be stopped, I would have stopped it myself. I'm just here to do some grunt work. You'll have to find Juliana yourself if you want answers."

95%

Looker could sense that their time together was nearly up. If he didn't find a way to keep Arven on the line for just a few more seconds, he'd lose his best lead. "Hold on. You were talking about a deadline, and wanting to help Juliana. What's going to happen to Juliana at the deadline? We can help her! Don't-"

"I wish that I could help," Arven interrupted solemnly. "But I don't know where she is, and that's that. Goodbye, detective Looker." With that, he hung up, leaving Looker's pristine sword tip down in the dirt. Disappointed, Looker glanced down at his phone.

99%

The number was blinking red angrily at him, accompanied by a frowning rotom. Looker swore quietly. This would give him a very good general area of his target, but the precise location granted by 100% eluded him. The pessimistic part of his mind wondered if Arven had done that on purpose, but he ruled the possibility out. There was no way someone like Arven, who had been described as having no technological literacy, would have the talent necessary to pull off something Looker would struggle to do for no benefit. Still, he had a lead to follow. Arven's signal was coming from the direction of the city of Alfornada. Though Looker knew nothing about the city, it was a lead, and leads had to be followed. The problem was that Alfornada was a dead end geographically speaking. Were he trying to retreat somewhere, the last place Looker would go in this region was somewhere that could be easily surrounded and had no easy access to the other regions of the world. However, no matter how absurd it seemed for Arven to be there, eliminating other possibilities left him with the truth.

As he considered what to do with this information, Looker's mind turned to Penny again. She was the wild card in this fiasco that could easily overturn any of his presumptions. According to the league, she'd had no contact with anyone that the League hadn't noticed, but Looker had already demonstrated the flaws in that line of thinking. Just this morning, Penny had met with Nemona and given her some sort of task that involved travelling to this base where her closest friends resided. This interaction had been predicted by Looker, who had prompted the encounter by confronting Nemona directly this morning. That interaction meant that there were other potential gaps which nobody had the ability to account for and Looker was flying on even less information than he thought. In order to get ahead again, he'd need to take decisive action. The first step in that was monitoring Nemona closely to see what she did about Penny's task. Perhaps in bringing her along he'd be able to kill two birds with one stone. If he wanted a good place to leave Nemona where she wouldn't cause problems, Alfornada sounded like an excellent opportunity. Refocusing on the fight, Looker was just in time to see Nemona shaking hands with Giacomo. As he approached, he caught the end of Giacomo complaining about the result. "For real? If you won, just take the damn pokémon already. I'm not about to start owing things to chicks like you."

Nemona shook her head, forcing the ball back into Giacomo's hands. "Nah, I don't need it. I just wanted an excuse to battle you, man. Team Star's gotten stronger since the last time we fought!"

At this unexpected compliment, Giacomo looked away to hide his blush, reminding Looker of a certain gym leader that was now approaching the group. Alfornada might be even more beneficial than he had hoped. "Well… of course! We can't be Team Star without shooting for the stars, hehe." This horrible response elicited several groans from the audience and inspired one student to throw his hat on the ground in frustration.

As the group dispersed to go about whatever normal duties they'd been assigned, Nemona seemed to remember something in time for Larry to join Looker at his side. "Oh yeah. I was supposed to deliver this a few days ago but I only got around to it now. Penny wanted you guys at Team Star to have this."

Giacomo took the USB that Nemona had offered. Looker and Larry had vetted this USB, of course, but it was only the pictures of Penny's pokémon that she'd promised it was. The only odd thing about it was the method of delivery, and that could be explained away with wanting to send it quickly using the equipment available at their current location. "I was wondering when this would get here. Tell Penny thanks for me. Better yet, tell her to get her phone working again, or to just leave her room and visit herself. Juliana's not always in Area Zero." The name caused Looker's ears to perk up, but he dismissed his concern as anxiety for the moment.

The other part of the comment, however, was worth considering. Penny's phone was fine as far as Looker knew, a shake of the head from Larry indicating he thought similarly. It was a line of reasoning he'd like to pursue, but not one he necessarily had time for at the moment. The detective made his presence known to Nemona by stepping forward into what was left of the arena. "This, Nemona, will be where we part ways," he informed her. "Thank you for escorting us here, but you, Larry and I will function independently for now."

"Hold on!" Nemona immediately complained. "We haven't gotten anything done yet! What happened to finding Juliana?"

"I didn't say you were done helping me," Looker corrected. "I've approximated Arven's location, but only in a general area. In order to ensure that we don't lose him, it's most effective to split up. If we don't locate him soon, our backup plan will be trying to set up a meeting through you, though I doubt that will be effective. Regardless, be prepared to make the attempt on my mark very soon, and stay here to ensure the call goes through. Is that understood?"

Nemona raised an eyebrow, choosing this moment to suddenly become observant. "You're not interested in sticking around to make sure all of that gets done? I thought you were the stoic untrusting type."

"You're saying I shouldn't trust you?"

The champion didn't have an answer for that. Knowledge that was necessary to win this argument with Looker was beyond her for the moment. She sighed and pulled out her phone. "Fine. But don't take too long, got it? Send the location to my phone."

"Of course. Be back soon!" Looker smiled, already turning away.

When they made it out of the base, Larry finally decided to speak up. "This is a bad idea."

"You should have said something then," Looker responded without much sympathy. "We've located the boy, approximately. We'll need to move fast while Nemona keeps him pinned down for us. You'll come in from one side and me from the other." This couldn't be further from Looker's intentions, but Larry didn't need to know that yet.

Larry nodded. "I figured as much. Geeta is pleased for once. She wants us to move faster, of course, but that's nothing new. In any case, where is he?"

Looker scratched his head as he pretended to recall his destination. "The very edge of the region, just past Alfornada. We'll have to move fast. You'll ride part of the way with me and then cut him off by flying on your starraptor. Can you manage that?" Larry nodded once, finalizing Looker's deception while leaving him relieved that the last potential hurdle had been crossed.

The wait for the flying taxi to arrive gave Looker time to reconsider his plan. Nemona was being left basically to her own devices, which would almost certainly inspire her to come charging after them. He'd played with the idea of requesting backup from headquarters to replace Larry or watch her, but nobody would get here within 24 hours, let alone one. It was imperative that he be given the opportunity to speak to Arven alone. If he failed, then the truth would be as swiftly covered as a strike from Larry's starraptor, and what little trust they had would be spent. That meant Looker's best course of action was to gamble his chance to gain information on this one maneuver to finally step out in front of Larry, or more specifically his keepers. Hold fast, Juliana, Arven. I'll find the truth first. Though Larry was unaware of it, by the time they'd gotten on the flying taxi together, Looker and Larry had become rivals.