TWICE IN A ROW? LE GASP WHO IS SHE?

Ok I know I have a reference sheet at sta dot sh/01j075gd3cae but yknow this time I'll be nice and just give you Thomas's team info right here (you're welcome):

Esther - Thomas's ampharos
Swaine - Thomas's sandslash
Oliver - Thomas's wooper
Marcassin - Thomas's absol
Cassie - Thomas's quilava

And I guess in case you forgot Evelyn's team, I may as well:

Trust - Evelyn's monferno
(Prom)ise - Evelyn's buizel
Faith - Evelyn's haunter
Hope - Evelyn's togekiss
(Def)inite - Evelyn's gallade
(Coeur)age - Evelyn's eevee

Def and I landed in the middle of town. Immediately I pulled off my bag and started rummaging through it. "What happened?" Looker asked, running over.

"Found Galactic and the Spear Key." I found an antidote and connected it to the medicine feeder on Promise's pokeball. I instinctively relaxed a little. At least Prom was okay.

"Is that what the cube is?" Looker said incredulously, gesturing at Faith.

I grinned; Faith was still holding the Key. "Yeah. I'll explain, let's just grab Thomas and go."

I recalled Faith and Def. Looker took the Key and gave me a natu, and I teleported to the northwest section of town – the Solaceon Tournament. Putting the hood of Thomas's jacket back up, I ran through the light crowd of people, searching for him.

Following my feet, I took a lap around the stadium's concourse. Some people gave odd looks to the girl running around with her hood up. I realized – if the tournament was a distraction from Galactic's activity in the ruins, then wouldn't it be run by…?

I soon found the green room. There were trainers inside, but–

I froze. Dawn and Lucas, relaxing around a coffee table. They weren't at this tournament last time. Lucas was laughing at something Dawn had said.

A hand found my shoulder. I whirled around, but it was only Thomas. "Whoa! What's going on?" he asked, looking over my shoulder.

"We're leaving," I said, handing him the natu's pokeball and bringing out Def. "Hurry."

Def teleported me out, and in a moment we were back in the Jubilife Pokemon Center, Looker sitting on a bunk in front of us. "I'm going downstairs for healing," I said. "Then–"

In the time I took to blink, my vision changed completely. Looker was gone; Dawn and Lucas were back, laughing on the sofas in front of me.

Something touched my shoulder. I recoiled and almost punched Thomas. "Whoa! What's going on?" he asked, looking over my shoulder.

I handed him the pokeball again. "Let's go."

I almost forgot to bring Def back out, but it didn't matter, because suddenly I was in the sparse crowd on the concourse, looking for Thomas again. "Dialga, not now," I muttered through my teeth, making a beeline for the green room. My hood flew off, and right then I made eye contact with someone with bright turquoise hair–

I arrived at the green room earlier than before. Lucas was saying something to Dawn, talking animatedly. Animatedly. Lucas.

"Hey!" someone with teal hair shouted, running toward me. I started to run the other way and nearly ran into Thomas.

"Whoa! What–"

I shoved the pokeball at him and shouted, "Get out!"

I released Def. The Galactic grunt tackled me to the ground; Def hit him with a few magical leaves to loosen his grip, then pulled the man off of me. Def put his foot on my leg and

teleported us both to Jubilife. I sprung to my feet. "They're in danger," I said breathlessly, searching for Lucas's number in my poketch. "There's grunts at the tournament."

Thomas arrived with the natu. The call connected but kept ringing. "Pick up," I muttered, pacing the floor.

"Evelyn, we're okay, relax–" Thomas tried to soothe me.

"Thomas, I just went through a variation of that three times, and this was by far the most dangerous," I said quickly, still pacing. "And now Lucas and Dawn are in Galactic territory unaware. Lucas, pick up the Arceusforsaken call."

He didn't. Thomas and Looker still wanted an explanation of things, so I recalled Def and kept dialing Lucas's number while I brought them up to speed.

Here's what happened:

After I gave my pokemon instructions, Def teleported to our starting point in the middle of Solaceon. He then teleported in bursts towards the ruins, jumping to the edge of his field of vision each time. Faster than running, but hindered by the woods outside the ruins, where visibility is lower.

Meanwhile, Prom put up a protect bubble around the Spear Key while Trust, Coeur, and Hope started battling as a distraction. Faith slid underground and got into the protect, then grabbed the Key. The instant Prom let down the protect, she zipped out of the room behind Saturn's back.

Faith floated up out of the ruins. Def teleported her back to the middle of town, where Looker was waiting, and came back for me. Then Looker's natu brought me to the tournament, where I found Thomas. Repeat x2.

"Couldn't my natu have just teleported to you in the ruins?" Looker suggested.

"If the natu had already imprinted the location. But I didn't know how to communicate that to you."

"Your gallade could have told him."

"Excuse me, can we not pick apart the plan I came up with in about two seconds–"

My poketch pinged. I smashed the "pick up" button. "Hello?"

"Hi."

Lucas. "Hey! Galactic has grunts at the tournament, be careful around there–"

"We know."

"What?"

"Is that Evelyn?" asked a distant voice. A moment later, the voice came through loud and clear. "Hey Evelyn, it's Dawn!"

"Hey. What's happening over there?"

"Oh, some grunts found us and started attacking. It was kind of a mess."

"Um?"

"Don't worry. We held them off. Security ended up taking them away, and I don't think they're going to try anything else with so many people around."

"I'm glad you're okay, but I'm still worried for you."

Dawn lowered her voice. "Lucas's kadabra is teleporting us both to a different city for the night," she said. "The tournament will be over by noon tomorrow."

"Okay. Be careful out there?"

"Yeah, of course! Is that everything?"

I thought of them sitting around the coffee table, chatting and being closer friends than any of us had been last time.

"Yeah, that's all."

"Okay! See you later, then."

"See you later. Bye, Lucas," I said.

Lucas didn't say anything. The call ended.

"I'll find them and stay close overnight," Looker said. "I can bring them up to speed. First things first, though."

He picked up the golden cube sitting next to him on the bed. Up close, you could see the simple geometric designs etched into its sides. It seemed as normal as a paperweight.

"We'll have to keep this safe," Looker said. "I'll teleport to the IP headquarters in a few minutes. Good work."

"Thanks."

"And thanks to me for being useless," Thomas added cheerfully.

"Someone had to check the tournament," I said.

"There was one other thing," Looker said, frowning. "You had a time irregularity?"

"Yeah, twice. I went backwards. That was new."

He grimaced. "Have you had any ideas regarding the time anchor?"

Time anchor. That sounded cool. "Vaguely. I haven't tried any of them out, though. I don't exactly get a warning when it happens."

Looker sighed. "All right. Keep working on that." He stood with the Spear Key. "Guess I'll head out, then. I'll contact you the next time I have a lead."

Thomas and I nodded. Things were looking up – the Spear Key prevented Galactic from doing a lot of things. Finding the orbs, getting into Spear Pillar… Maybe it wouldn't stop them, but it was a major victory for our side.

Looker teleported away. The Spear Key dropped to the floor.

In a moment he returned, looking flabbergasted. "Where– There it is! Why…?"

"It didn't go with you?"

He tried again, with the same results. "Where are you teleporting to?" Thomas asked him when he returned.

"Headquarters," Looker said vaguely.

"In Sinnoh, outside Sinnoh…?"

"Outside Sinnoh."

"Try somewhere in Sinnoh," Thomas suggested.

Looker took the Key again and disappeared. The Spear Key went with him. He reappeared, still holding it. He stretched the arm holding the Key out over the bunk bed, and again disappeared. The Key fell onto the comforter.

Looker reappeared once more. "Spectacular. This is wonderful. The International Police has hardly any presence in this region, and the Spear Key can't leave. Fantastic."

"We could ask–" I began.

"No," Looker interrupted me.

"Looker," I said, frustrated at his stubbornness.

"Lyn, I've already broken too many rules today."

"You've broken one rule by having Def with you. That's not enough rulebreaking, frankly."

"Lyn, I can't."

"Looker, you need to."

"What's going on?" Thomas finally asked. His voice was tinged with a sense of being left out of something important.

I softened a little. "You remember how I told you the International Police doesn't like to get involved with the Pokemon League?"

"Oh, yeah, out of pride, right?"

"It's not out of–"

"Lying is bad for your health, Looker."

"No it's no–"

"It's a reasonable decision to make," I continued. "Putting an ancient artifact with an expert in Sinnoh Mythology."

"Who happens to be the Champion."

"All the better for protecting it!"

"And when headquarters finds out?"

"Well, what's your backup plan?"

"Keep it."

"What, carry a box the size of your head around in your pocket? Unprotected, because you're not allowed to carry pokemon?"

"Well… yes."

"What's your gut instinct?" Thomas said.

"What do you mean?" Looker asked.

"Is your gut telling you to avoid the Sinnoh League?" Thomas explained. "Or is that just your intellect?"

Looker hesitated. "Neither, really. But I can't evade duty."

"Can you evade both instinct and logic?"

Looker grimaced. Thomas and I stayed silent as he considered it.

Looker finally sighed, rubbing his forehead. "We'll go to Cynthia tomorrow. I'll leave the Spear Key with you two overnight."

Grinning widely, I impulsively got up and hugged him. "I knew you'd come around."

Looker shook his head. "I still don't like it," he said, shaking me off and teleporting out.

Thomas glanced my way. "Sorry for taking over," he said. "You were doing fine, I just… had an idea."

I shrugged. "It worked. In the end, that's what matters."

We both stared at the innocuous golden cube sitting on the bed in front of us.

"Now what?" Thomas wondered.

I realized what I hadn't yet done and sprung up from the bed. "Now I go heal my pokemon, finally."

Since Thomas and I had to keep watch over the Spear Key, we stayed in our room for the rest of the day. I picked up food from a place nearby and brought it back. We let all twelve of our pokemon out for the hell of it, even though it made the room significantly more crowded.

"Next week is the Celestic Tournament, right?" Thomas asked. Faith stole a piece of pokemon food from Esther's bowl, causing the ampharos to baa indignantly.

"Oh, Faith, don't eat–"

Faith popped the piece of food in her mouth. A few seconds later, she spat it out. Esther liked her food spicy. Even as a pokemon, Faith still had a two-year-old's tastebuds.

"Yeah, it is," I said to Thomas, twirling pasta around my fork.

"Are you going to that one?"

"Mm. I guess."

"What's that face mean?"

I shrugged, reaching into my bag to refill Trust's bowl. His appetite had increased, which I guess meant he was getting ready to evolve? "I mean, you saw Lucas and Dawn today–"

"I did?"

"In the green room at the tournament?"

"I don't remember seeing them."

I realized why he didn't. "Oh. That's right, you only saw them the first two times."

"I what?"

"The first few times I ran into you, you looked into the room." I made a face. "Man, I thought one time jump made explaining things weird."

Oliver and Hope hopped onto Thomas's bunk and started bouncing on the bed, giggling. "What were Lucas and Dawn doing?" asked Thomas.

"Not much, just… They're so much closer than they used to be."

"They've been spending more time together, so that's only natural."

"Yeah…" It still made me feel left out.

"Why don't you try spending time with them at the next tournament?"

I frowned. "Aren't you the one who said to give Lucas some space?"

"It's been a few weeks. I think you should give it another shot."

"Well, all right."

Marcassin and Prom kept an eye on the troublemakers in the room. Cassie and Trust were having an animated conversation in the corner. Swaine launched himself onto the bed, sending Hope and Oliver flying when he landed. They squealed.

"I kinda like this."

"Yeah, the chaos is nice."