Opening theme:
“Alright, so where is your old acquaintance?” Fox asked, as she, Sleight Hoof, Quick Storm, and Info Scoop were walking down an alleyway in Tall Tale. Earlier, Info Scoop had paid their carriage a visit, saying that she had something that she needed them to see.
“He’ll be here soon. Shoot might be laid back, but he’s serious when it comes to stuff like this. He’ll show up,” Info Scoop defended. Last night, shortly after leaving the Guard Station, she had run into him...or rather, he had called her. He had seemed to be in a hurry, but he managed to tell her the time and place to meet up with him, while also telling her to bring Sleight and Storm along. The Fox gang had wanted to tag along just in case.
As if on cue, a Pegasus Pony Stallion entered the scene. He had a dusty brown coat, and a blonde mane, with a camera cutie mark. “Sleight! Storm! Its been a long time!” he smiled up at his two old acquaintances. “Glad you could get a hold of them, Scoop.”
“He seems awful friendly for someone who’s ‘just an acquaintance’,” Rascal idly said.
“Quiet you,” Alice hissed. The last thing they wanted to do was piss off an informant.
“Yeah, what she said, dude,” Scep snickered, taking a jab at the Weavile who glared at him.
Ignoring the two bickering mon, Alice instead focused on the conversation between the Ponies.
“Alright, so Scoop told us you wanted to meet us here. She said there was something you wanted to tell us about, especially after the recent incident with the Mayor,” Storm said.
“That’s right. Anyway, I got some info recently from Canterlot. One of the nobles there, secretly a guy who just loves to dabble in illegal artifacts, and by dabble, I mean he loves to smuggle them and sell them in the black market. Anyway, he got wind of this mystic ring. Apparently, if the old stories are true, that ring can magnify an unicorn’s power, apparently to the point a mountain is just an annoyance. And by that, I mean they can blow up a mountain easily if they have the ring,” he said. “So point is, he’s gonna be coming for the ring. He’s due to arrive tomorrow night to get the ring, and bring it back to Canterlot.
“Alright, that’s going to be an issue,” Alice mused.
“And you are?” the stallion asked.
“Just call me Alice. I don’t believe you’ve introduced yourself, though,” she simply said.
“Ah...right. Sorry,” the stallion said sheepishly. “I’m Picture Perfect. A Photographer, and as you can guess, an old friend of Sleight and Storm.”
“It’s a pleasure,” Alice nodded pleasantly. “As I already said, you can call me Alice, and these guys are my teammates,” she said, gesturing to her team. “Shade, Rascal, Charlotte, Spinner, and Scep,” she said as she gestured to each of them. “So you’re an informant, like Info Scoop here?”
“Officially, I’m a photographer only, but yeah. So as I was saying, after I heard that Sleight and Storm were in town, and when I heard Scoop was making a few moves, it didn’t take me long to connect the dots that you all had something to do with it,” Picture Perfect said.
“We did help, but most of the credit goes to Alice here,” Sleight chuckled.
Picture Perfect blinked, before looking at Alice...before the dots connected. “You’re the Fox?”
“That’s me,” she chuckled, not really worried about her identity at this point. It wasn’t that hard to figure out, especially when you knew more info.
“Well, then. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Fox,” Picture grinned, shaking her paw with his hoof. “I must say, we all owe you a big thank you for exposing Grumble for what he really is.”
“All in a days work,” Rascal chuckled in amusement.
“So anyway, I can guess why you are telling us this. That Crime Lord getting that ring would be a BIG problem. Okay, I think we can squeeze together something. Maybe a little surprise for him,” Alice nodded.
“We going after another Crime Lord already? Cool,” Shade grinned.
“Heh, you guys sure don’t rest. Well, count me in,” Scep grinned as well.
“Alright then, please keep us informed. We’ll take care of the rest,” Alice nodded.
“Thank you. I really appreciate this,” Picture smiled sincerely.
You can count on me too,” Scoop grinned.
“Thank you, both of you,” Sleight and Storm smiled.
“Anytime. Us reformed criminals gotta stick together, right?” Scoop chuckled.
“Alright then, we’ve gotten tickets for everyone,” Quick Storm said as she handed out the tickets to them all. However, they soon found a small problem.
“Hm...looks like we bought too many tickets. We have one extra,” Sleight Hoof chuckled.
“Well, that’s not a real issue. Doesn’t cause us any real issues. We still have our plan,” Alice shrugged. “Anyway, we’re in agreement. We’ll split into 2 teams. Team one will board the train and scout the area. Once we’ve established the location of the target, we’ll move in on it at night, while everyone is asleep. That way, we’ll hopefully minimize the number of ponies who might get in the way,” she started. “As for Team two, they’ll follow from the carriages. If anything happens, we’ll need backup after we disconnect the train carriage,” she finished.
“Alright, so who goes where?” Toichi asked.
“Glad you asked. You see, we’re gonna need all of your help on this one. If we show up as just Pokemon, then ponies will get suspicious,” she explained.
“Alright, then if you’re taking volunteers, we’ll come along,” Storm said with a smile.
“Yeah, you can count on us,” Sleight grinned.
“Thanks. I was going to ask you two actually,” Alice couldn’t help but chuckle. “Aside from you two, I’ll be coming along. Also...Shade, Rascal, and Spinner. I’d like you all to come with us.”
“What about me, dudette?” Scep grinned.
“I’m sorry Scep, but you’re a little big. This is supposed to be a stealth mission in a train. Please understand, we’re trying to avoid a big fight if we can help it,” Alice explained.
“Hrm…” Scep grumbled, not really liking the thought of sitting a heist out. “I don’t agree to this….”
Alice smiled wryly. “Please Scep. In this heist, we might need your strength more if anything unplanned happens,” she said, using her rarely used trick. The dreaded puppy dog eyes.
Scep’s eye twitched, as Alice had been playing with her illusion ability, making her look quite cute at this point. Eventually he caved. “Alright, alright. I get it! Please just stop with the cute!”
“Thank you!” Alice smiled, as she quickly assigned the servants to team 2. However, just as she turned to Toichi, he suddenly spoke up.
“Miss Alice, I’d like to be on team 1,” he said.
At this, Sleight and Storm’s eyes bugged out in fear. “Toichi! What are you saying?”
“Mom, Dad, I don’t want to keep staying on the sidelines. Ms. Alice has done so much for us and I don’t want to keep watching. I want to help too,” he argued.
“But…”
“I can help. Watch this,” Toichi said, before taking a piece of prop armor, and casting a spell on it. He then struck it hard with his hoof, but it didn’t so much as bend. “I’ve been practicing my magic. I’ve gotten real good at enchantments,” he said, sounding a little proud.
“Well….alright,” Sleight sighed.
“Dear!” Storm said in alarm.
“He’s not a little colt anymore. He can make his own choices,” Sleight said, trying to calm her down. However, he still turned to Toichi and sternly said, “That being said, I expect you to listen to us. If we say run, you run. If we say hide, you hide. Is that clear?”
“Err..yeah. Okay, dad,” Toichi gulped.
“Perfect then, so we’re all agreed?” Alice nodded, earning a nod from everyone. “Alright then. Let’s all get some rest, and we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
The next day saw that the train station was bustling as always as ponies boarded into the train. However, one thing that was...odd for the people today, was the small group of ponies boarding, with what appeared to be a group of Pokemon as well.
“So far so good,” Alice said, her form currently hidden under the illusion of an Earth Pony.
“Not surprising. We’re only just getting on the train,” Sleight nodded.
“Good point,” Alice chuckled as they got in. Finding a seat wasn’t hard, since they happened to be able to get an empty train carriage.
“Alright! Now we got this carriage all to ourselves,” Rascal grinned as they took their seats, said Weavile lounging around.
“So...now what? We wait?” Shade asked.
“Yes. For now,” Alice nodded. “We’ll make our moves during nightfall.”
The rest of the time was spent generally chatting amongst themselves, though Shade and Rascal had more or less taken to sleeping on the cushions. On the other hand, Toichi was pretty busy with his face buried in a book.
“Toichi has REALLY been serious about this, hasn’t he?” Alice mused as she watched the colt practice his magic. Enchanting magic. Lately she noticed that Toichi had been REALLY immersing himself in magical books, especially enchantments, evident by how he had been making a whole bunch of enchanted items lately, some of which he had given to her, though she had yet to really find a use for them yet.
“He certainly has. Looks like we have you to thank for it, though,” Sleight chuckled.
“Me?”
“Yeah, Toichi told us about it. You told him one night to try what he felt worked, bit by bit instead of trying to go for it all in one swoop. Its because he’s been trying various different types of magic that he’s been really serious about learning enchantment magic. Have to say though, he has the talent for it,” Storm chuckled.
“Well, glad to help I suppose,” Alice shrugged.
The group continued to enjoy the ride, till they noticed the sun setting. “Alright then, we’d better get some shut eye if we want to be awake for later,” Sleight yawned, before setting an alarm for later.
The group was jolted awake when they felt the train suddenly stop. “Huh? We can’t be in Canterlot already. Its too soon,” Sleight blinked as he shook himself awake.
“Nope, we’re still on the road,” Rascal yawned as he looked out the window.
“Well, its not a problem. We might want to get ready soon anyway,” Shade said as she stretched.
However, any further conversations were cut off when the door opened, and a Stallion walked in. He was dressed in a gray overcoat and fedora, but one could still see the purple coat and lavender mane underneath. The stallion noticed them staring. “What are you commoners looking at?” he snorted, before walking out through the back of the train car.
“...was that?” Shade started.
“Yep, that was Gray Hat, alright,” Alice nodded as she pulled out the picture that Picture Perfect had provided for them.
“Alright then, so show time?” Rascal grinned, while Sleight, Storm, and Toichi got out of their seats, ready to move away.
“Not yet. I’ll do some recon first. Its late enough, so most if not all the other passengers should be asleep. I’ll try and see if I can snag the ring without much fuss, but be ready,” Alice said, as her disguise faded away, revealing her true form. Switching to her Shiny illusion, she slipped on her cape and hat. “Just wait for my signal, but be ready to run if needs be,” she said to the ponies, before she disappeared from sight.
(Play Fox's heist theme)
As Gray Hat trudged through the train, grumbling in annoyance, he was unaware of his invisible stalker. As they walked through the trains, fortunately most if not all the occupants, few as they were, were fast asleep. However, every now and then, Gray Hat would get the feeling like he was being followed, and turn around. However, each time he even looked like he was about to turn, Fox quickly moved behind some cover, even with her illusion, just in case.
“Damn nerves. Now they’ve got me jumping at shadows…” he muttered.
This continued for a while, and before long, they were approaching the luggage carriage. Fox figured that they were reaching the final carts, and decided to wait for a bit, trying to avoid as much suspicion as possible. When the crime lord was out of sight, she continued the chase,and reached the next carriage. Many different packs were spread all over the vast cart, and Fox decided to investigate while advancing, careful of any possible traps that may be placed, or any hiding henchman that could be guarding the next carts. But what she saw was not what she expected.
“Is that…?” A saddlebag was lying in the middle of the cart, revealing some odd objects that seemed to hold quite the monetary value. One of these items caught her eye, a golden ring with a crystalline gem was shining with the light of the moon. As Fox advanced towards it, the colors started to change, tone after tone, simulating the colors of a rainbow. “That looks like a magical ring to me. But why is it here… just lying there?”
Taking a cautious approach, she carefully looked around for any signs of traps. Seeing none, she realized that it could very well be that magic was being used to make the traps invisible. "Now...how to..." she mused, before blinking as she remembered something. Reaching into her fur, she took out the glasses that Toichi had given her a day ago, a pair of glasses that were enchanted to let her see magical auras/signatures. “I owe you one, kid,” she chuckled under her breath as she put them on. Looking at the scene, she saw no signs of magical enchantment, save for the ring itself. “Alright...coast is clear. Maybe I lucked out and he gave the ring to some dumb henchman...yeah, that might be it…” she muttered, as she carefully crept towards the ring, her camouflage illusion going up again, before carefully removing the ring from the saddlebag, and hiding the ring under her cape. But suddenly, a bag dropped from its position, and a soft whisper was heard. Acting on instinct, she climbed the ladder on the wall, and opened the trapdoor she had seen earlier when she had scanned the room for possible traps. She got out of the cart, as a feminine voice shouted behind her.
“My ring!”
(end theme)
But Fox had no time to check the source, she had to run for it. Looking behind her, she spotted a shiny Scizor with a Bunnelby grasping its shoulder with its ears running after her.
“Huh, from Picture’s description of the guy, I thought he’d be too stuck up to hire Pokemon,” Fox mused to herself as she darted down the roof of the train, her paw on her hat to keep it from getting blown away while she kept up her illusion. .
“Get back with that ring, Zoroark!” The Scizor shouted.
Fox blinked in surprise when she realized he could see her. “That’s interesting...how the heck did he do that?” she blinked to herself, but kept running nonetheless, as the sound of rushing wind covered the sound of her footsteps. However, just to be safe, she tossed one of her smoke bombs over her shoulder, right into the path of the pursuing Pokemon. But once again, something unexpected happened, as a light blue bubble surrounded the spreading smoke, taking it back to the grenade and throwing it out of the way. As the smoke disappeared Fox noticed the user of the Psychic, which was… the Bunnelby?
At this point, Fox couldn’t help herself, and stopped running, and seeing as it was clear that her camouflage illusion wasn’t working anymore, dropped it. “Alright, now I’m REALLY curious. Since when can a Bunnelby do that?” she said, her voice a mix of curiosity and amusement as she eyed the two Pokemon, a good train car away. The pursuers also stopped, the Bunnelby falling from the Scizor’s shoulder and placing himself in front of it.
“Why should we tell you?” The Scizor said, on a voice slightly familiar for her. “Drop the ring, and we can all go home safe and sound.”
“No can do. The only place this ring is going is the junkyard...preferably in a million pieces,” Fox shook her head, never once losing her amused look.
“I won’t let you do that, Fox. I won’t let you escape… again.” The Scizor exclaimed
“Oh? Do I know you? You’ll have to forgive me, but identifying old acquaintances has been so hard lately,” Fox chuckled, her stance still seemingly relaxed, but she was ready to move at a moment’s notice.
“Makes sense. In that case, let me introduce myself once again. My name is Steven Stone, former champion of the Hoenn region, and you and I, Phantom Thief Fox, have some pending business to solve” The Scizor flapped his wings, and prepared to run towards her at any moment.
“Ah yes, Mr. Stone. Now that you mention it, the voice did sound familiar,” Fox chuckled. “So how’d the research go? Hope you're not still sore over that banana peel,” She chuckled, remembering the incident. An Aggron slipping on a banana peel, before bowling over the rest of his team was one of the funniest heists she had ever pulled off.
“Thanks to your little prank, we are not allowed to have fruits anymore, Iron Fist goes nuts whenever he sees any. What are you doing here anyways, I thought Arceus only brought the humans that were worth it.”
“Aww....why does everyone keep lumping me in with the regular thieves?” Fox pouted. “I would think someone like you could figure out that I’m no simple thief,” she said, her expression changing to one of amusement.
“Oh, I know you are not a simple thief. You are worse. Steel Wing!” The Scizor ran towards Fox, a soft white aura surrounding Steven’s wings.
Fox didn’t make any move to evade. Turns out it wasn’t necessary, since when Steven struck, it revealed to be a doll shaped like a Zoroark. “Well then, guess I was nice enough to be considered for the move,” came Fox’s amused voice as she faded back into existence another car down. “That was pretty rude though, attacking a lady when she is talking.”
“Layton, use Hammer Arm!” The Scizor called, but the Bunnelby glared at him, and sighed.
“Steven, I am not able to use anything but Psychic, and the moves this Bunnelby knows. None would be effective against Fox.” The Bunnelby explained, hopping back into Steven’s shoulder.
“Then I guess, I am alone on this, great. X-Scissor!” Steven ran forwards, his pincers glowing a light blue.
“I got a better idea. Fetch!” Fox said, as she tossed something right past him. The ring she had stolen.
“So this was just another prank then, huh? You planned returning it all along.” The Scizor chuckled
“Steven, that’s not the-” But Layton was abruptly interrupted, when the ring exploded, a mass of webbing coming out, covering both Steven and Layton in the sticky mess.
“Gotcha,” Fox chuckled, before she opened another trap door, and dove into the train.
Once she was in, she immediately switched to her illusion of an Earth Pony, before leaving one more illusion of herself, heading for the door, and for each train car she passed, she left another illusion just in case. Along the way, she happened to pass through the kitchen area...and boy was it a mess. “Dang, must have been one DISGRUNTLED customer,” she blinked. Of course, she couldn’t understand why anyone would be disgruntled after that delicious meal. Oh well, it didn’t matter to her anyway, since she was almost there.
Upon entering their train car, Fox immediately dove for cover behind one of the seats, and pulled off her hat and cape from underneath her illusion.
“Problems?” Spinner asked.
“Not really. Turns out Steven Stone’s on this train, and it looks like he might be in cahoots with Gray Hat. Of course, I’m guessing he has no idea what this ring does, or else he would never have agreed to it,” Alice explained, as she pulled out the ring. Unfortunately…
“Er...Miss Alice, can I see that?” Toichi asked.
“Huh? Sure,” she said, giving him the ring.
The colt examined it for a bit, before sighing. “Sorry Miss Alice, but...this isn’t the right ring.”
“Huh? That can’t be right. It looked like the one Picture Perfect showed us, and it even has a magical signature. Those glasses you gave me told me it did,” she said.
Toichi’s face scrunched up in concentration. “Yeah, but...the magic signature is different,” he grunted, as he focused on distilling the enchantment. “The magic signature on this ring is really weak. That’s cause its….” he started, as his horn glowed brightly, and before their eyes, they saw what looked like symbols floating out of the ring.
“Huh?” was the only ‘intelligent’ thing the Fox gang could say as they were completely lost.
“Based on the spell matrix...this ring has a visual enchantment, particularly on the crystals. All this kind of enchantment does is make the crystals change color if you tilt it a little,” Toichi explained, and unnoticed to him, something appeared on his flank.
“Not to mention, now that I think about it...look at the picture,” Shade said, holding up the photo of their target. “There’s this small inscription on the side. This ring doesn’t have it.”
“Dang, you’re right. Its uncanny though, that a decoration ring could look so much like a super powered magical ring,” Alice couldn’t help but chuckle, as she lightly smacked her own head.
“Honest mistake. What matters now is that the real ring is still in Gray Hat’s hooves. We’d better get going now,” Shade said.
“Yeah, come on. We’ll all need to work together, especially since a Champion is on this train,” Alice nodded, before the four members of the Fox gang moved to the door, but this time they had the photo of their target with them just in case. “You guys might want to move away from here. This might get crazy,” Rascal added as they left.
“I think we should listen to them this time,” Sleight nodded.
“Yes, I think we should. Good work, son,” Storm smiled. At this point though, both of them noticed something. “Toichi...your flank!”
“Huh?” he asked, and when he looked, he saw what was now on his flank. A symbol that depicted a magic wand seemingly casting something on a purple crystal. “I got my Cutie Mark!” he said happily.
“And we can celebrate it AFTER we get off this train,” his parents chuckled, but they understood why he was so happy.
The three of them moved towards the front of the train, but along the way, Toichi suddenly perked up. “Oh man, I just remembered!” Toichi said.
“What’s wrong?” Storm asked.
“Miss Alice was busy working on one of her gadgets, and I figured out how to make an enchanted version of it. I gotta give it to her,” he said.
“No Toichi, wait!” Sleight tried to stop him, but too late, he had already ran through the door…
“We have to go after him!” Storm started...until they felt the train care they were in shake. Looking out the door, they saw their carriage, with Scep holding on to a strong rope of webbing that was attached to the top of the door.
Sleight looked between the door and the rope, noting the strained look on the Sceptile’s face, as well as the servants in the front…before sighing sadly. “We...we have to trust Alice on this. Or else this whole plan might be in danger…” he said.
Storm for her part wanted to protest, but seeing the look on her husband’s face made it clear that he liked this about as much as she did, and with a heavy heart, she nodded. “Alright…”
However, before grabbing on to the rope, they both looked towards the inside of the train again. “Toichi...Alice, please take care of him…” they thought before they grabbed the web.
The Fox gang made their way down the train, having already taken to the roof of the train, hoping to avoid any additional obstacles.
“Man, for once I wish we didn't have so many things in our way. This is the worst place for this,” Rascal grumbled.
“It can’t be helped. None of us expected a Champion to be on board,” Fox sighed as they continued to run down the train roof.
“At least we know this job is going to get interesting,” Rascal sighed.
“But is that really a good thing right now?” Shade idly said.
“Duck!” Fox exclaimed. Hearing her, Shade and Rascal did as she said, and the three of them promptly went flat on the roof.
A silver blur spun rapidly over them. It stopped mid air, and turned around, revealing a golden ‘X’ and cold red eyes. “Target found, subject: Fox. Reporting current location. Transferring second brain…” It said in an extremely robotic voice. His eyes went a pale white, before returning to their usual red. “Fox,” The Steel type deadpanned in a more natural way.
“Well well well, I was wondering when we’d see you. What was it Mr. Stone called you again? Layton, was it?” Fox chuckled, remembering the Shiny Metagross from a few years back.
“I am impressed by your memory. Many years have passed since… the banana incident. There is no way you can escape, Fox, Steven is coming this way at this very moment.” The Metagross said on his monotone voice.
“We’re on a train, tin head. There are PLENTY of ways to escape,” Rascal snorted. “Sides, if you haven’t noticed, YOU'VE got the clear DISADVANTAGE. 3 Dark-types against 1 Psychic-type. Sounds like a slaughter to me,” he grinned.
“Phantom Thief Fox, a title said to be transferred from generation to generation. Known for being stealthy and almost uncatchable, they are usually… not fighters. I know enough about the way you work, Fox, and I can sense that your Pokémon are not made for fighting. Besides, I am more than capable of dealing with Dark types.” Layton released two of his arms, which started shining a strong white glow. The Steel type began hovering towards them, charging his Hammer Arm on the way, aiming for Rascal.
“Weavile, Blizzard. Liepard, Dark Pulse. As for me, Shadow Ball!” Fox ordered. In short order, all three attacks flew straight at their target.
Layton stopped his advance, and dodge the incoming ice attack. As the Dark Pulse turned to follow its objective, the Psychic type jabbed it with one of his Hammer Arms, and proceeded to do the same with the Shadow Ball. Although unharmed, he paid the price of the attacks he used, as his movements became considerably slower.
“Now!” Fox said, as she threw several of her web bombs, catching Layton’s legs and holding them down to the roof. “Dark Triangle!” she ordered, before the three of them fired simultaneous bursts of Dark Pulse, the three beams racing in a way that looked like a triangle before they folded into each other, creating a stronger beam.
“Not so fast!” A voice said from behind the immobilized Steel Type. A Scizor rushed in front of his friend, as a lime-green neon-like sphere surrounded him, nullifying the attack. “It seems like I arrived just in time, huh bud? Get out of that mess and come help me out,” Steven exclaimed, brewing a Tailwind which sped his partner up.
“I hate it when our opponents arrive in the nick of time like some cartoon hero,” Shade snorted as she stuck her tongue out in annoyance.
“Give up, Fox. We don’t need to do this the hard way. There are more reinforcements coming this way, if we don’t stop you, they will.”
“We can handle Ponies easy,” Rascal snorted. “What are they gonna do? Buck us to death? Heh, I’ll turn them all into ice sculptures before they get the chance.”
“I never said anything about ponies,” Steven chuckled, showing himself confident on his actions. “That Tailwind was not just to speed Layton up”
Just as he said that, Fox’s instincts suddenly acted up, as her pupils dilated, and she dodged, just as an arm flew past her, nicking her on the arm.
As the Fox gang rolled away, they turned to see their attackers. “You again?” she deadpanned. “Okay, two times was a coincidence, but this...this is getting ridiculous.”
“Bug Buzz!” The horrible noise came at them as the one who gave command quickly floated back to get out of range as a familiar Volcarona quickly floated forward.
With no time to pull out their earplugs, the horrible screech blasted their eardrums. Were it not for it being muffled by the sound of the train itself, they would have gone deaf. “I see you’re all as charming as always,” Shade deadpanned.
“What I’d like to know is what you two are doing working for Gray Hat,” Fox winced. Her ears were ringing, but she wasn’t about to let it show.
“Who the heck is Gray Hat? What on earth are you even talking about? Explain yourself!” Steven demanded, getting his pincers ready to launch an X-Scissor
“Oh, only the crime lord who’s trying to get a ring that will let him blow up mountains with just a thought. Speaking of which, here,” Fox said, before tossing Pocket’s ring towards Steven. “That wasn’t my target. Turns out it just happened to look a LOT like the ring we were after.”
“You think I’ll let you do whatever madness of a plan you are pulling off here just because you gave me this ring back?” Steven deadpanned, while grabbing the ring on his hollow pincers
“....Try it, just try to give us one reason why should we believe you?” Eric growled, tensing himself up. “But you won’t, seeing as you’ve never given me a reason to believe anything, in fact, all you’ve given me is just another reason to go after you. Besides, we already let you get away for a second time, it won’t happen again.” Looking at his Volcarona, he added. “Alex, ready yourself.”
“Uhm, okay, if you say so. Sorry for what’s coming Mrs and Mr. Thieves.” Alex said softly, as the bug’s wings started to flap faster.
“Like I said before, you REALLY need help. Even Johnny-boy isn’t this obsessive, and he keeps getting heat for not catching us,” Fox sighed, as they prepared to once again play fire limbo.
“Heat Wave!” With a simple flick of the wings, a blast of heat came forward to scorch the thieves.
“Watch it with the Heat Wave!” Steven exclaimed alarmed, as he barely got away from the attack, “One hit from that, and I’ll be out!"
“Don’t you have ANY restraint?” Rascal grumbled as the three of them evaded the attack by ducking.
“He’s right. First it was the museum, then the warehouse, and now this train. Are you TRYING to get someone killed in the crossfire?” Shade added.
Considering the distance, Eric knew Heatwave wouldn’t be good anymore. He bit his lip as he bitterly remembered the warehouse incident. “Sorry about that, Steven! Alright, Alex, you heard him, no more Fire-types attack like before.”
“....alright.” The timid moth replied.
“Finally, I was afraid you’d set this train on fire just to catch us, ya nut!” Fox said in annoyance.
“Moonblast, go!” Steven called. From behind him, a Sylveon jumped into the air, shooting a large pink sphere towards them.
“Oh crap. Weavile, Liepard, Rock Smash the roof! We’re sitting ducks out here!” Fox barked, to which the two Pokemon obeyed, smashing their attacks into the roof, and blowing a sizable hole from which they fell into the train, right into one of the less crowded train cars, though they still scared off a couple of ponies who were thankfully not near where they landed...
“Okay, we've gotta move, before…” Fox said before she was interrupted.
“Miss Fox!” came Toichi’s voice, as they turned to see the colt in question running up to them. At the sight, their eyes bugged out. “Toichi?! What in Arceus’ name are you doing here? You’re supposed to be safely on the carriage with Sleight and Storm!” Alice yelled frantically.
“Yeah but....” Toichi started.
“No buts. This isn’t a game, kid. The last thing I need right now is to worry about you getting caught in the crossfire!” Fox scolded.
“I wanted to give you these,” Toichi said as he held up several yellow crystalline balls.
“And these are?” Fox raised an eyebrow.
“The thing you were trying to make last night. I figured out how to make magic versions of them,” Toichi explained with a big grin.
Fox’s eyes widened, before she smiled. That was just as she noticed their pursuers pouring jumping into the room. “Toichi, you’re a life saver!” Fox said, as she grabbed the items from the colt’s hooves. Throwing three of them, the balls exploded in mid air when they were near the approaching Pokemon, and they were suddenly covered in a field of electricity.
“Layton!” Steven called, looking for his metallic friend
“This appears… to be a modified paralysis status effect. My… calculations indicate that… the effect is temporary… yet extremely effective.” The Steel type stuttered, the field of electricity surrounding his body.
“Like em? I call them Shock Bombs. Don’t like using them much, but they’re effective,” Fox chuckled, before they turned towards the door. “Later. Come along, colt. Your parents would kill me if anything happened to you.” And with that the Fox gang continued on their way.
“Get….back...here!” The Hydreigon gritted his teeth as he lay on the floor on his side. Looking at the Volcarona beside him, it seemed like he wasn’t going be moving for a while either.
“...dammit!”
“Stop right there, Foxy! You ain’t gonna go pass through me!” A navy blue unicorn mare exclaimed.
The Fox gang looked at her for a moment...before Rascal and Shade burst out laughing. “Oh come on, we already dealt with the bigger Pokemon. What’s one pony gonna do to us?” Rascal said through his mirth, while Fox just sighed at their antics.
“Me? Nah, I won’t do anything, my body will though. Layton!” The unicorn’s eyes turned a pale white, before returning to normal, with the exception of the pupils now being a soft red color. “Transfer complete, initializing… magic.” the unicorn said, on a now robotic and deeper voice. From the horn of the unicorn, various neon blue beams shot towards the gang, aiming for each of its members.
“Not happening,” Toichi said, jumping in between them.
“Kid...what are you doing?” Fox asked, a sinking feeling in her gut all of a sudden.
“I’m helping!” Toichi said...a little too happily. But just as the beams were about to hit them, they disappeared in thin air.
“Non-Pokémon combatant appeared, unauthorized to harm. Awaiting orders from the main unit.”
“Yeah, not happening,” Rascal said, before firing an Ice Beam at Pocket’s body, freezing her. Immediately, the Fox gang went straight for the door again, while Fox made sure to pick up Toichi along the way.
“Come on, we’ve gotta hurry!” Fox said, her voice becoming urgent. They had to hurry, or else they might run out of time. With that in mind, they quickly went from train car to train car, unfortunately, along the way they ended up spooking a good number of the other passengers...of course that was probably due to them having Toichi in their grasps...though the foal sure wasn’t complaining. “Some Phantom Thieves we are right now…” Fox couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Meh, we got more important things to worry about right now,” Rascal shrugged.
“Sides, all that matters is that you get to catch the bad guys,” Toichi cheered.
“Kid...when this is over, your parents are definitely gonna be having a long talk with you,” Fox sighed. “But for all its worth...good job,” she said, ruffling his mane. “Either way, hope everyone is ready, cause the real show time starts now,” she grinned.
“You got it!” her team smiled as they continued to advance towards their target.
Ending theme:
