Happy Halloween!

I know NaNo is literally a couple hours away but it's still tbd for me? I might just work a lot on Chance instead idk.

I paced the auditorium in the Snowpoint Gym, waiting for Looker to arrive. I'd called him immediately, even though I had more questions than answers, to let him know the Spear Key was acting up.

"It sounds like the orbs are nearby," he mused. "I'll be right there."

"Okay," I said. "Why do Maylene and Candice have the Spear Key?"

Looker was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I'll explain later."

All I'd managed to figure out from Maylene and Candice was that Maylene had taken care of the Key for the past week, and then she'd walked it up to Candice. It had been in her overly-tall backpack as she traveled with me and Thomas, who'd both been under the impression that Cynthia had the Spear Key whenever it wasn't with Looker.

I messaged Dawn. Might need to fight G. Be ready.

Ok, thx for the heads-up.

Looker arrived and took one look at the Key before saying, "The orbs are nearby. I'll get the others."

"Thomas is super sick, but I can text Lucas and Dawn. Lucas's kad– uh, alakazam can teleport here."

Looker hesitated, then nodded and turned to Candice. "Which way is it trying to go?"

Candice, who was now sitting on the Key, pointing a thumb over her shoulder. "North. The only landmark up there is the Snowpoint Temple."

Looker frowned. "The temple? It's not related to the Sinnoh cosmogony, is it?"

"Nope. It was home to Regigigas until recently, but that's about it."

That was one of the legendary thefts we'd let slide after Heatran went badly. I wondered – we'd assumed Galactic was stealing legendary pokemon to help with the Red Chain, but if the shaymins had been stolen for another purpose, had the regis also…?

Looker returned from scouting the temple, followed shortly thereafter by Dawn and Lucas. We convened in the auditorium, where Candice had pulled up a layout of the Snowpoint Temple to project onto the whiteboard. The rest of us sat in the rows of what I now realized was a lecture hall. Maylene lounged on top of the table near me, legs dangling.

"All right, students!" Candice said, smacking the end of a yardstick against the whiteboard. "A crash course on the Snowpoint Temple! We got six floors total, most of them icy, one of them unusually empty of any regigigases. Regigigi?" Candice frowned, shrugged, and said, "Whatever! From top left to lower right, we've got ground floor, first basement, second basement, all the way down to five levels underground. A lot of the floors are very similar and have no reason to exist aside from making the temple seem more mysterious, but we don't have time to unpack that! The only notable thing is on the bottom level, where Regigigas used to be."

"The top level's notable, too," Maylene pointed out.

"The top level's a semi-modern Arcaean church. That not notable."

Maylene smirked as Candice went on: "The bottom level predates the rest of the temple. It contains similar elements to the ruins that housed the other golems."

The puzzle in my head clicked into place.

"Wait, that's it, then!" I said, jumping out of my seat. "They used the Iron Ruins to scan Mount Coronet for Spear Pillar – we thought they'd go for Iceberg or Rock Peak next, but this one works just as well."

"So it is a trap," Looker said. "They need the Spear Key to activate the ruins, so they've brought the orbs to lure you in with it."

"But they activated the Iron Ruins without the Spear Key," I pointed out.

"Why would they bring the orbs, aside from wanting the Key?" Looker pointed out. "They need the Key for Spear Pillar, regardless of whether they can still activate the ruins. This may be killing two birds with one stone."

"So should we just not go?" Dawn said. "If it's a trap?"

We collectively thought about it for a second.

"We could still sneak in and find out what they've been using in lieu of the Spear Key," I mused.

Looker nodded thoughtfully. "This also…"

He trailed off. We watched him expectantly.

"How would you three feel about taking out an administrator for good?"

There was a small cacophony of words – "I'd feel excellent about that." – "Taking out? What do you mean taking out?" – "Hang on, what about us?"

"What do you mean what about us?" Looker said.

"I mean we're coming too," Candice said, tossing the yardstick to the side. Ignoring the loud clatter as it hit the ground, she said, "You can't just invite us in and then kick us out. This seems big. We're coming with."

"We know the territory," Maylene pointed out. "That's our church." ("Was," Candice muttered.) "We've explored all the secret levels, we know all the passageways, we're your resident experts."

"We're also added firepower," Candice added. "I hear you're missing a trainer? We'll take his spot."

Looker scratched his chin, deep in thought. "In order to apprehend a Galactic administrator, I'll need to bring in IP support," he said. "They cannot know I've involved the Sinnoh League in any part of my mission."

"Maylene's helped you out before, yeah?"

"The IP never knew about her distraction at the Veilstone Warehouses."

Back when I went to save Lucas from the HQ, I thought. The last day he and I were friends – although, things are looking up? But not if he's secretly with Galactic. In which case it would be very bad that he's here right now.

"Okay, well, we'll disappear before they bring the admin out," Candice conceded.

We came up with a plan – Looker would teleport the Spear Key out of Snowpoint as the rest of us sneaked in. The idea was to eavesdrop for a few minutes, figure out which admin was there, and pounce. Candice and Maylene would handle the grunts, I'd take on the admin, and Dawn and Lucas would look for the orbs. Meanwhile, our psychic types – Def, Lucas's alakazam (Magic), and two IP natus – would try to get close enough to the admin to teleport them out. With any luck, they'd be able to do so before Galactic could get a psychic block going. Looker would return with IP reinforcements to arrest the admin. And just like that, we'd have one less thing to worry about.

"If there's a sneasel, take him out immediately," I added, remembering what had happened the last time we all ran in battle royale style. "If someone's got a small box with a button, it's the pokeball blocker. Psychic blockers are on their poketches. Either way, destroy those if you can."

Dawn was nodding slowly, a frown on her face. "A good plan, overall," she said.

"But things never go according to plan?" I said.

"Gang aft agley," Candice added sagely.

"We'll be okay. We've gotten good at tag battling," said Lucas.

This didn't make me feel better. Dawn and Lucas, specifically, had gotten good at tag battles together. And Maylene and Candice likely were as well. I suddenly felt Thomas's absence more acutely.

Looker teleported away with the Spear Key, and Maylene and Candice led us north to the temple. We took a roundabout back route, in case any Galactic grunts were stationed out front, although we were so thoroughly bundled in coats and scarves that I wasn't sure we were recognizable.

The front exterior of the Snowpoint Temple was a grand, classical-looking structure, but the backside looked like any other church. Candice walked up to a door, tried the handle (it was locked), then leaned her full body weight to the side while twisting it. The door popped open, and the five of us filed into a dark kitchen.

We let out our psychic types and continued following Maylene and Candice through the building. A back staircase led to the first basement, which was much more of a soggy, snowy cave than a church, with columns and statues around the perimeter. In front of the next set of stairs were a pair of Galactic grunts.

Looker's natus disappeared. I saw them reappear for a split second behind the grunts before vanishing again. A lightning-fast series of teleportations later, they were able to bring us down the stairs without the grunts noticing.

We skipped down the next few levels similarly – the natus teleporting ahead past the grunts, out of sight, bringing us down floor by floor as the temple progressed from a damp cave to an icy underground sanctum. The fourth basement level glowed softly from a few dim bulbs set into torch sconces in the walls. Four grunts were hanging out at the top of a stairway across the room.

The natus returned to us, looking worried. It seemed this was as far as we could get. "Coeur, start scanning the floor below," I said, listening to the grunts' conversation:

"I mean, it's stupid, really. We want them to get all the way downstairs, so why are we even–"

A chorus of shushes cut him off.

"Don't talk about that. What if Commander Caelus shows up?" another said.

The first grunt snickered. "Caelus? No one calls him that."

The second straightened up. "It's important to maintain decorum–"

"Whatever, dude. Kiss the boss's ass all you want; you still won't get an admin spot."

Another grunt said, "Is it true he only goes by his real name because people kept calling him Uranus?"

Another round of giggles and shushing.

"I mean, his actual name means sun, yeah? That works out better than a planet seven places down the line, no matter what ancient god you think you are."

"The impropriety–"

"The iMpRoPrIeTy," the first one mocked. "Look, as long as you call Neptune his fake name, it doesn't matter what you call the rest."

"Only because he's the one everyone knows."

"Cyrus–"

"Oh, shut up, obviously we also know Cyrus. Look at you, such a smarty pants."

"Not much is happening downstairs," said Coeur.

"Show me?"

Colorful figures blinked into my vision. Below the floor, I spotted around twenty multicolored shapes, some moving around slowly, some sitting in place. Most were humanoid, but I spotted a large green feline shape – Mars's purugly – as well as a hunched purple one – Saturn's toxicroak. I cringed. Two admins. I kept looking and found a bloodred furry blob. Jupiter's skuntank.

"Three admins," I mouthed to everyone else. They made various faces that meant, "Fuck, that's too many."

It didn't look like they were doing much? What were they waiting for? Us?

Candice gestured at herself and Maylene, then pointed at the grunts. She pointed at me, Dawn, and Lucas, and then at the psychic types. I nodded.

Candice stood, pulling Maylene up with her. They strode out past the columns and across the floor, hand in hand, walking across solid ice with the surefootedness of two girls who'd grown up in the snow.

One of the grunts spluttered in confusion. "How did… wh… you–"

We didn't stay long enough to hear what the grunt actually said; Def, Magic, and a natu teleported the rest of us in jumps to the bottom of the stairs, from where we ran out into the deepest level of the Temple.

"Everyone out!" I yelled, throwing five pokeballs. Dawn and Lucas did the same. Several grunts visibly panicked as our pokemon sprang out in all directions; one grunt even screamed. Jupiter looked shocked, then furious; Saturn froze like his brain was trying to catch up to the situation; Mars had the horrified look of someone who'd just fucked up.

"See if you can locate the orbs," I said to Coeur.

Grunts and admins hurled pokeballs and started to fight. Through the ensuing pandemonium, I noticed a few things:

The Coronet-scanning machine sat in the middle of the expansive room (we were mostly clustered to the side, near the entryway). Nothing was on or near it; it seemed inactive. Maybe we were too late? I had Trust go smash it anyways.

I tested psychic communication – "Def?" No response. Psychic block was up already. It likely extended to the bottom of those stairs.

Heavy-duty boxes sat along the walls, stacked five high. I directed Faith to them, since she could check them all the quickest and most stealthily.

Dawn and Lucas's pokemon fell instantly into a rhythm. Elliot threaded Lucas's golduck's hydro pump with electricity, stunning and dealing extra damage to Saturn's toxicroak. An air cutter attack knocked an aura sphere from Lucas's lucario off course, but Venezia whipped up a gust to blow it into Mars's purugly. Lucas's torterra hurled leaves at golbats, an ice beam from Kenna making it super-effective. I tried not to think about how well they and their teams worked together.

To be fair, my own pokemon worked really well together, too – the golbats that Hope shot from the air landed in Trust's arms, while Coeur trapped opponents in a bubble with Prom, who either filled his tiny arena with water or simply went after them until they fell. Jirra – or, rather, Jupiter's sneasel – went up against Def, which terrified me, but Def landed a fury cutter that knocked Jirra right into Trust's fists. As lethal as Jupiter's sneasel was, he was not built to stand up to that kind of quadruply-effective hit.

Dawn and Lucas themselves split up, looking for the orbs per our original plan. Lucas's houndoom sniped a bronzor that swooped at Dawn – "Take out the non-psychic types first," I relayed to Coeur, realizing we could get the admins to reactivate psychic.

Prom made eye contact with me – I instantly recognized that he was poisoned and pulled him back into his pokeball.

Candice and Maylene's pokemon soon joined us downstairs, followed by their trainers. We were winning; even as the grunts from upstairs sprinted (read: slipped and fell) down the stairs, we took out their pokemon in swaths. The commanders' pokemon were falling, too: aside from Jirra, Mars's purugly was down, and Saturn's toxicroak and magmortar were fighting four of Dawn's pokemon at once, with Maylene's lucario and machoke on their way. No one had found any orbs, but things were going okay.

Then Liana was suddenly out and blasting a discharge that hit every single one of us. I yelped in pain and dropped Prom's pokeball.

"Everyone freeze!" Jupiter roared, and only then did I realize she had an arm around Dawn's head, a knife to her throat. Lucas turned to run towards them, but Jupiter pressed the blade against Dawn's skin. Lucas froze where he was, staring straight at Dawn, whose eyes brimmed with fear.

No one moved – not Galactic, not Candice or Maylene, not Lucas. Heart pounding, I scanned the room for answers.

"Galactic, fall back," Jupiter snarled. Despite the implication of surrender, her lips curled into a victorious grin. I realized – they were retreating, but they were taking Dawn with them.

The grunts recalled their pokemon and filed into place behind Jupiter. Lucas was stone-faced as ever, but the fear in his eyes made my heart crack. I hadn't thought it could do that anymore.

"Oh?" Jupiter said, eyes glowing with glee. "How easily the tables turn."

Mars and Saturn recalled their pokemon sullenly, but kept their psychic types out. My eyes fell on Saturn's wrist.

"Faith, smash Saturn's poketch. Be sneaky."

Nothing happened. Then, suddenly, Saturn's poketch popped and sparked. Jupiter dug the knife a little deeper into Dawn's neck at the sudden sound.

"Def! To Saturn!"

And then my psychic type was with Saturn, one blade to Saturn's throat, the other holding him in place. Jupiter faltered, then laughed.

"Nice try. You don't have the guts," she said gleefully.

She was right, of course. Jupiter, out of all the grunts, would have loved to slice someone open. Even if Saturn had once been responsible for the death of the boy I loved – which Jupiter didn't know – this still wasn't a call I could make.

But.

Conjuring all my grudges against Saturn – and my best Jupiter impression – I laughed. "Oh, sweetheart," I said, drawing the words out and taking a step forward. Jupiter tensed, and I could see beads of blood collecting below her knife. "You have no idea," I said deliberately, continuing to step slowly forward, smiling broadly without my eyes, speaking slower and softer. "You cannot fathom how thoroughly I'd love to rip this man to shreds. Give me a reason. Go on."

Someone, pull me back, I begged the universe.

Jupiter seemed to weigh the options, then opened her mouth to respond.

"Enough," Mars snapped. "We're leaving. I don't know how you did it, but we'll take the loss. Jupiter, hold the girl until the rest of us are gone. We'll trade before we leave."

I sighed in relief, but managed to make it seem disappointed. Mars's porygon-Z and Saturn's kadabra began to flit in and out of existence, carrying grunts and admin pokemon and boxes out. Soon it was just us, our pokemon, and the commanders left. Saturn was remarkably composed in Def's hold, although I could see the tension in his jaw.

"All right, we're trading now," Mars said, glancing between Jupiter and Def. I gave Def instructions. "Release in three," Mars said. "Two… one…"

No one budged.

"Jupiter," Mars growled.

Jupiter rolled her eyes and let go of Dawn, shoving her away. The instant Dawn was free, Def released Saturn and teleported to Dawn, whisking her out of the Temple. Two instants later, the other Galactic admins vanished with their own psychic types.

Lucas bolted for the stairs. "Teleport, idiot," I shouted at him. He stopped, recalled most of his pokemon, and let his kadabra teleport him up.

"All right, everyone, we need to investigate," I said, picking up Prom's pokeball and digging through my bag for an antidote.

"What are we looking for?" Coeur asked.

"No idea. Anything." Anything that wouldn't make this mission a wash.

I checked with Faith; she hadn't found the orbs, although the boxes they'd likely been in were now gone. Coeur scanned the ruins with aura, and the rest of us looked all over, but there was nothing. No trace of the orbs, no sign of what Galactic was going to use instead of the Spear Key, not even the trashed remains of their machine.

Footsteps thundered down. We tensed, but it was only… who the fuck?

"Freeze!" said a man in a black suit. "International Police!"

The sixth person to enter was Looker, and I realized: when the International Police entered the bottom level of the Snowpoint Temple, what they saw was some trainer, a bunch of pokemon, signs of a scuffle but no evil team in sight, and two members of the Sinnoh League, who were absolutely not supposed to be there.

Shit.