Looker and I briefed Thomas on the situation, and we teleported out of Jubilife at midnight. Before I left, Thomas put his hand on my shoulder and leaned in.

"Don't get me wrong," he said. "It's good to not give up. It's just now in particular…"

I nodded and walked out from under his hand. "I understand. Thanks for everything."

I teleported with Looker's IP natu into a small living room, with a fire crackling in the hearth, Lucas not even a foot in front of me–

"Whoa!" I jumped back, hoping the firelight didn't show how red my face was turning. "Uh, hi."

He smiled. "Hey." He was trying not to laugh, I could tell.

"Hey, Evelyn." Dawn was there too.

"Hey."

"All right, now that you all know why you're here." Looker said, moving swiftly to the fireplace. A severe-looking woman with gray hair stood there. "Professor Carolina, would you explain the situation?"

"Certainly." She caught my eyes. "Hearthome City had on display fake Adamant and Lustrous Orbs. The real orbs are in a vault in the Celestic Town museum. It's a well-kept secret, although I'd have expected the International Police to be aware of it."

Looker rubbed his temples. There were bags under his eyes. "We can talk about that later."

"Well, somehow Team Galactic was aware of the real orbs' presence, and now they're here. They haven't made a move, but there's spacemen all over the town. We need you to protect the orbs, basically."

"Protect meaning lie in wait for them to arrive?" I clarified.

"Precisely."

I frowned. I didn't like that. Waiting for an ambush.

"We'd be facing a lot more grunts at once that way," Dawn said. "I don't know how strong they are, but even quantity can overcome quality in this kind of situation."

"She's right," I said. "I'd rather we be proactive than reactive in this situation. It's not only safer, but faster."

Dawn glanced at Lucas. "What do you think?"

I don't know if he was as surprised by her asking his opinion as I was; his face was turned away from me. "Is there a map of the museum vaults?" Lucas asked.

A few minutes later, we stood around a table, leaning over a blueprint of the museum. "Underground we have storage, for old exhibits, collections, whatnot," The professor explained. "In one of the middle rooms–" She traced her finger down the corridor, through a doorway. " –there's an entrance into a lower level vault. It's beneath a rug. The orbs and other items of particular value are locked away here."

"I could get my kadabra to teleport us out with the orbs," Lucas said. "We'd just have to get in."

The professor huffed. "Honestly. People who think our security is lax enough to allow teleportation. There's a teleportation block over the whole museum. Can't have thieves making their getaway that easily."

"Does it turn off?"

"Sure it turns off. And then what, we let Team Galactic teleport whatever they want out of there?"

"We'll just have to be fast then," I said. "Once we get outside the block, we can teleport back here."

We walked in on our own. Professor Carolina gave Dawn the vault number and keycodes and stayed with Looker and my egg. Lucas's kadabra couldn't take more than one person at a time, at his current abilities, but we wanted all of us trainers there for firepower.

The three of us walked across part of town to the museum, sticking mostly to shadows. It wasn't actually that far, but it was enough of a trip to see what the professor meant by "crawling with spacemen." The spacemen in question weren't paying much attention to us (It was late. They were sleepy. Hell, we were sleepy.), but they probably did notice us. Best case scenario, no one cared about three teenagers walking around at midnight.

Dawn checked the inside of her wrist for the first keycode and typed it into the museum's employee entrance. The lock clicked open.

"Hold it right there."

I froze. Lucas and Dawn flinched. For crying out loud.

I turned to face the voice. It was a grunt with a headset, flanked by three other grunts. Easy communication with whatever admin was here; wild card battle, depending on their strength and number of pokemon, especially if they pulled more grunts over.

I calculated quickly. Dawn had the passcodes. Lucas I wanted to keep safe. That left me. I pulled out Trust's pokeball –

"I'll hold them off," Lucas said, "Hurry."

Arceus, no, not you…

"We need you to teleport us out," Dawn whispered furiously.

"I can't til you're out of the museum anyway," he argued. "Hurry up."

"Lucas, I'll do it, go with Dawn," I said. I couldn't leave him alone with Galactic.

"It's fine, I can handle it."

"Lucas–"

"I said, I can handle it," he said, looking straight at me. I swore he'd heard the fear I didn't say. "Go on."

Dawn took my wrist. "Let's go."

She led the way through the office area, into the hall and down a flight of stairs. Panic buzzed in my nerves, eventually manifesting itself into the thought that finishing the job sooner would mean he was safer.

We found the room, keycoded our way in. The rug Catalina mentioned was underneath boxes, which we moved with Trust's help (my hand was still in questionable shape). Dawn spun the dial on the trapdoor.

Go, go, go, I thought.

Dark beneath. Dawn fumbled for the lights as I climbed down the metal stairs after her. Trust jumped down, illuminating the room as I shut the trapdoor.

"359, 359," Dawn muttered, scanning the vaults. They looked like filing cabinets of a hundred shapes and sizes.

"Here," I said, tapping one that was twice as long as it was tall. Dawn spun the dial and pulled the drawer out.

The orbs lay side by side on a velvety surface. They were the size of bowling balls, one pearly smooth, the other shining with large facets. They looked like rocks, but as I reached for them, I could tell they were more than that. Power radiated from them, the air around them thicker and warmer. I scooped up the smooth one; Dawn took the other. They were lighter than I thought they'd be, or at least this one was.

"I guess we're done," I said, moderately surprised.

"Yeah," she said, "That was faster than expected."

Closed the locker. Ascended to the first floor of the basement, rearranged the rug and the boxes. Dawn swung open the door –

"Whoa." Lucas jumped back.

"Oh, hey," Dawn said, surprised. "You're here."

"Yeah, thanks for not unlocking the door," Lucas said, gesturing at the doorway between us.

"How'd you get through the other one?"

"The one outside? I watched you punch the code in."

"Okay, well, relevant questions," I cut in, "What's Galactic's status?"

"I beat the grunts that were there, but there's more coming."

We darted silently back up the flight of stairs into the museum office. I heard noises coming from where we'd entered the building. Voices.

"Which way did they go?"

"This way, sir."

Sir. An admin. Jupiter's voice.

Maps. Who's good at maps? Lucas.

"Lucas, which way is the main entrance of the museum?" I whispered.

He thought about it briefly, then jogged through a doorway. Light feet. Dawn and I followed him through a short hallway and another office room into what looked like the visitor center. Lucas turned around.

"Past here it should be easy, but I don't know it exactly," he said quietly.

We slowed our pace to a walk. I recalled Trust so his tailflame wouldn't make us too visible.

The three of us made it through the geological exhibit explaining Sinnoh's formation and composition. We crept into the biological segment, each of Sinnoh's main biomes on a one-way route. From what I remembered of the map, we were closer to the entrance than the visitor center.

"Visiting hours are over, what are you three doing here?"

We froze; someone stepped out, blinding us with a flashlight. Below the glaring beam, I could see the trousers and mop of a night custodian. "Stealing artifacts, too."

Wait. I know that voice.

"Guys, run, he's with Galactic," I said urgently, resisting the urge to push them forward. We ran at him, aiming past–

"You've got it wrong," said Saturn, "We are with Galactic."

Seven or nine grunts stepped out from exhibits around him, blocking our way.

"Well, well," said a voice behind us, "I see they did the dirty work for us."

Jupiter and her crew had caught up, trapping us in the middle of the exhibit. Arceus. "How about you hand us the orbs, and we let you walk away?"

"Fight?" Dawn murmured.

"Absolutely," I said.

The three of us stood back to back to back and released a pokemon each, setting off an all-out brawl in the museum. It was way too small for such, but the grunts still let out too many pokemon. It sort of made our side of the battle easier, since their badly-trained pokemon kept getting in each other's way. After a bunch of zubats managed to confuse each other, they stopped using supersonic.

That being said, they were stronger than I thought they'd be. Faith was down in two minutes, after a swarm of zubats ganged up on her. Lucas's psyduck was thrown into the plants on one side of the exhibit, and even Kenna went down quickly.

Trust took out a couple of zubats with ember and dodged most of their wing attacks, knocking over a ponyta statue in the process. Melody, Dawn's roselia, was using mega drain to stay up. Lucas's snorunt snapped a few arms off a fake machoke before nailing a glameow with an ice shard.

We were winning knockouts on our side, but we still had the admins to go, and they were starting to fight dirty. More than a few zubats aimed for my head; Promise let himself out to blast them away.

"We need to just get out of here," I said.

"How?" Lucas questioned.

I was trying to figure that out. Jumping into the exhibits would slow us down, but we didn't have another way through the grunts. And we'd have to go one at a time, but that would take away firepower in the meantime.

Trust figured it out. He yelled something that Promise seemed to get, and both of them sprang into action. Promise jumped and grabbed the orb in my arms; Trust took Dawn's. They ran easily through the exhibits and out towards the front.

"Lucas, your kadabra–"

He released his pokemon beyond the grunts. "Get them to base!" Lucas called to his kadabra, who nodded and ran after Trust and Promise.

"Croagunk, golbat, after them!" Saturn yelled, sending out two pokemon.

"Still need to get out of here," I said.

"You just want to give up?" Lucas.

"Lucas, assuming each grunt has half their team left, there's like forty more pokemon to battle," I said, getting frustrated, "And last time I fought Jupiter, it already took two of my pokemon."

"It's okay," Dawn cut in, "Our mission was to get the orbs, not defeat Galactic. I've got an idea for getting out."

Initially I hated it, because it opened up a new side of the game. It's not that I didn't think it'd happen – I mean, to some degree it was starting to already – but I didn't want to open it up so soon. But there wasn't a better option.

Amidst the chaos, Lucas and Dawn informed their pokemon one by one about the new plan, swapping them out to keep defending in battle. I told Dawn (no time to ask) to direct Alan at Jupiter, so the other three could aim forward.

"Ready?" Since I didn't have pokemon to direct, I'd become the commander somehow.

"Yep."

"Ready."

"Now!"

Alan let loose a massive flamethrower attack in the back; Melody and Lucas's snorunt and grotle shot ice and leaves forward. Missing the pokemon.

"What the hell?" Saturn growled, shielding his face. The rest of his grunts – and Jupiter's – were crying out, trying to block the flame and razor leaves and stinging ice.

We pushed through the grunts and made a break for it while they were still recoiling from the attack. Dawn and Lucas recalled their pokemon for convenience. Our head start didn't last long; Galactic recovered and came in pursuit. Zubats flew ahead and launched supersonic attacks at us – covering our ears, we charged through. I punched a zubat out of the air. Hell, we were already breaking the rules, might as well go all the way.

We sprinted through the rest of the exhibit, reached the entrance hall, and made it outside to find Trust and Promise fighting Saturn's croagunk and golbat. Kadabra and the orbs were nowhere to be found.

Lucas's kadabra reappeared a split second later. "Damn it," I groaned. "Who goes first?" This again.

"Dawn, go," Lucas said, "Evelyn and I have pokemon out." Dawn touched hands with the kadabra and vanished. All the grunts had caught up now.

I jumped into Trust and Promise's battle, while Lucas released his snorunt and grotle again. "Promise, focus on the golbat, Trust, on the croagunk," I directed them. "Watergun, ember!"

The golbat dodged, croagunk withstood it. Promise's waterpunch hit but the golbat was easily still flying, Trust's flame wheel did as much as it would have against a gym leader.

Why was Galactic already so strong?

Lucas's kadabra was back, now with the IP natu Looker had brought. "Return," I called, cutting the battle short. I scooped up the natu – Lucas took his kadabra's hand – "Get them!" I heard – grunts lunged but would never be fast enough before we disappeared – never have been fast enough if not for my hair.

"Get off me!" I kneed her in the stomach. She grunted but didn't let go. Lucas was gone; the natu couldn't teleport two people at once. "Trust, mach punch!" I yelled, trying to shake the grunt off. Two pokeballs burst open, and Trust rammed his fist into her stomach. It knocked the grunt back, but she kept her grip and yanked my head back with her–

I gasped, turning cold from the suddenly chilly night air. Spinning snowy void Dawn fell through. I was sinking. This time I pulled myself out.

Promise kept the other grunts from advancing with wild waterguns. "Trust," I shouted, pointing at my hair. He got it. I knew he would. He blasted fire at the grunt's hands – she recoiled from my burning hair.

"Return," I said, and as soon as they were in we were gone, back to the cabin.

"AHHH YOU'RE ON FIRE!"

A few moments of pandemonium in which Lucas's snorunt tried to freeze my head off. "I have a buizel," I forced through my frosty face.

"Are we safe here?" Dawn asked Looker.

"Not very. We're moving out right now. Lyn, take the orbs."

They were on the couch right behind me. I started to scoop them up. "Where are we OWWW!"

I dropped the orb. One orb. The faceted one that I hadn't carried before. I looked at my hand, which was bright red from the encounter. The thing was burning.

"Are you all right?"

"It burned me…"

Dawn picked it off the ground. I glared at the demonic orb. She held it out to Lucas, who poked it with a finger. "It's fine with me."

"Nothing happens with this orb," I said, gesturing at the smooth orb resting in the arm with a bandaged hand. Damn, now both my hands were injured.

"Only the Adamant Orb burns you?" Looker asked.

We exchanged a look. Only the orb associated with time.

"Anyway," I said. "Let's get out of here."

I was too frozen to move. Jupiter yanked me by the hair over to the cliff. "No," I said, panicking, "Arceus, no, no…"

She shoved me down and planted her boot on my calf. I faced empty space from the knees up; all that kept me from falling was that boot and the hand in my hair.

"Interesting," Jupiter murmured, lowering my head over the side of the cliff. I reached for the cliff edge but couldn't get a hold. "You're not usually like this. I think we've found one who's afraid of heights."

I stopped speaking to try and calm my breathing as she kept lowering me by the hair. Most of my body was over the edge too far, looking down into the spiraling snowy void Dawn had disappeared into.

Jupiter let go; I screamed a hoarse scream, but my head was almost instantly yanked back by the hair. She'd faked out. She was laughing.

"Ah…" With a sudden jerk, she flung me, breathing heavily, back onto the snow. "I'll let you go. I'd like to see you later, at Spear Pillar, and I can't do that if you're dead."

Jupiter stalked off without another word, and my spinning head spun into darkness.

First Monday update because FF dot net was being a butthead and wouldn't let me actually upload to doc manager til like 1 am Monday ugh.

Yeah so not my favorite chapter, but I'm decently satisfied with it. Leave a review to let me know what I'm doing right or what I could do better, or just to say hey.