Twenty Third Heist
Opening theme:
“So looks like we got dealt our first loss here,” Shade mused as she sat on her haunches on the roof of the carriage, her paw placing a stone on the board.
“Mhm,” Alice nodded as she made her move...before she smiled lightly. “How long has it been since we were able to play like this?” she mused.
“You started getting very busy after you started going to college and became Fox, we were lucky to be able to play a game once or twice a month,” Shade chuckled. “That and we didn’t know Sleight had this board...even it if is just a 9X9 size,” she said, before adding, “ So, you don’t seem particularly miffed that you lost that heist.”
“Honestly, we’ve been dealing with so many ponies who either walk headlong into our traps, or evil types who are trying to act smart, but fall apart easily. It was refreshing to see that someone managed, even if it was from an oversight, to beat me at the game...it keeps things interesting, and shows that these people can also improve and learn,” Alice answered as she made her next move. “After all, isn’t that Fox’s main purpose? To push the people to evolve and develop.”
“Yeah, too bad it seems only the Princess of a small town is the one to do it first,” Shade mused as she placed another stone on the board.
“Don’t discount the ones in Canterlot yet. I’m pretty sure we didn’t get interference cause they let it happen. Remember, when we started that Heist, we only had about a 20% or less expected success rate. The fact that the biggest obstacles never showed up...there is no way that was possible unless they purposely stayed out of our way,” Alice said.
“Right, you did say they talked about it. Guess they used us this time, huh?” Shade mused.
“Doesn’t matter, we got to show we could and did steal the Crown Jewels, and they got to discredit their corrupt council. Everyone wins,” Alice shrugged, placing one more stone.
Shade looked the board over...and sighed. “I resign,” she said simply. “So, what now?”
“Sleight said our next stop is supposed to be Las Pegasus...Equestria’s Sin City,” Alice said as she cleaned up the board.
“Sounds like a gold mine for us,” Shade chuckled.
“Of course,” Alice nodded. However, little did they know that the trip to Las Pegasus was going to take a bit longer than expected. The path they were riding on lead them through a rather old and worn road. Unfortunately, seeing as they were in a large carriage/caravan...well, it was only a matter of time before something happened…
Sleight and Storm groaned as they got up. “Is everyone alright?” Storm asked. “Say ‘aye’ if anyones too hurt to move.” Fortunately none answered.
“What in Arceus’ name happened just now?!” Rascal groaned as he got up. “Sorry about the caravan,” he apologized...before he blew a hole through the door...which was above them, as the caravan had tipped over and landed on its side. Everyone crawled out to see what had happened.
“...that’s the last time we go through steep hills,” Storm deadpanned when she saw that they had slid down from the main path, the wheels on the caravan/carriage had broken off during the fall.
“Now what do we do?” Alice mused as it was pretty clear they weren’t going anywhere without the carriage, seeing as it held all the props for Sleights shows...some of which would probably need replacing too after this accident.
“For now...make sure everyone is okay, then set up camp. We can worry about finding help after we’re on more stable grounds,” Sleight said.
“Right,” everyone nodded. The work that followed wasn’t particularly difficult, as fortunately they didn’t land too deep into the woods. The only real hassle was getting the caravans/carriages back up and standing...that and pushing it into a more manageable location, something that took all of them to do now that the wheels had broken off. Fortunately, once that was done, it was a simple matter to set up camp and the like, with the carriage facing the outer parts of the woods, so the fire would keep away any predators.
“...Its getting dark. We’ll worry about finding help tomorrow,” Sleight said to the assembled group, who just nodded.
With that done, everyone went around doing whatever they wanted around the camp. As for the group of thieves, a thought crossed Alice’s mind. “Hey guys,” she started.
“Yeah?” they asked.
“I just had a thought. Scep’s been on our team for a while now, right?” she mused, earning nods in response, though they obviously weren’t sure what she was getting at. “Well, we never did teach him a few of our ‘tricks’.”
“Huh, good point,” Shade mused.
“Wait, you saying you’re gonna teach me some of the moves FOX uses?” Scep said in surprise.
“Yes, you’re part of the team, so it's only fair that you learn too,” Alice smiled.
Scep was practically in her face when she said that. “Well lay it on me, dudette,” he said with a grin that threatened to split his face.
“Alright, first things first, we’ll start with something simple,” Alice said. “Our special Substitute move.”
At that Scep’s face fell slightly. “Seriously? Lame. Come on dudette, any mon can learn Substitute. Give me something harder than that.”
“Don’t go scoffing at it just yet, Scep,” Shade chuckled. “You’re right, any mon can learn a NORMAL Substitute, but this isn’t a normal Substitute.”
“That’s right. A normal Substitute cuts the user's strength by a significant portion, creating a shield that would take the damage, but ultimately, still leaves them weakened. Not very good for battles against stronger opponents, or even long drawn out battles,” Alice started. “However, our substitute uses the bare minimum of power. In short, instead of a shield, we’re creating a disposable double that can take any damage, yet still costing you only the bare minimum,” she grinned. Durability sacrificed for ease of and repeated use.
Scep blinked a bit...before he caught on to what she was trying to tell him. Once he did, his eyes widened at the realization, followed by his grin returning. “Heh, not bad. Guess your family became one of the best thieving family for a reason,” he chuckled. “So...how do I do this?”
The rest of the evening was spent teaching Scep finer details like how to consciously control the amount of energy put into a move till it was just right. It wasn’t easy, and took a good amount of time, but one big factor that greatly helped them was Scep’s level of enthusiasm. The Sceptile may have been laid back most of the time, but damn when he set his mind on something, he gave it his all. However, it wasn’t long before it was time for some rest, so they decided they would continue another time.
The next morning, the group unfortunately couldn’t continue the lesson immediately, as Sleight wanted to go looking for a town, or somewhere they could get help and fix the carriages. It took them a few hours, but they eventually did find a small town not too far away from the woods. Fortunately despite being small and looking a bit remote, it seemed the town was pretty friendly, and even had a few Pokemon working with them in addition, so hauling the carriages over wasn’t too hard thanks to a small group of Fighting-type Pokemon.
“Don’t worry sir, we’ll have your carriage good as new in a few days,” the Earth Pony said with a smile as the carriages were placed inside a workshop.
“Right, thank you,” Sleight said with a nod, before turning to his group. “Looks like we’ll be here for a while.”
“Eh, that’s fine. Seeing as we’re all in one piece, and it's not like we haven’t been busy lately, I think a small break wouldn’t hurt,” Alice shrugged, while the others nodded in agreement. “So I guess we’ll be on ‘vacation’ for the next few days?”
“More or less,” Storm nodded. “This town seems nice enough, so we should be alright till then. Besides, I noticed you were busy last night.”
“Heh. True. Hey Scep, you’re in luck. Looks like we have a prime opportunity to give you the full crash course. Looks like you’ll be a full fledged Fox Pokemon soon enough,” Alice chuckled.
“Bring it on, dudette. I can take anything you dish out,” Scep grinned back.
“Alright, let’s get started then,” Rascal grinned.
Finding a clearing outside of town, the group of Pokemon were quick to set up a training area, making use of the large rocks, as well as the trees in the area.
“Alright, Scep. As you know, we already covered one of the basic evasion techniques. We’ll still keep working on that, but since we’ve been given this rare opportunity, we’ll be working on a lot more than that,” Alice started. “We’re going over a few of the more useful moves that a Fox normally knows,” she said. “Since we did a defensive move, let’s practice an offensive move,” she suggested.
“Alright, what you got, dudette?” Scep grinned.
“We’ll work on the Rebound Shot this time,” Alice said, before turning to Shade and nodded.
Shade smirked lightly and powered up a Shadow Ball. However, something seemed...different about it this time. Aiming it at several trees, she fired. The attack sailed through the air and struck. However, instead of exploding like it normally would, it rebounded, struck another tree, and did the same again and again as it rebounded against 5 trees in a semi-star formation, before finally the Shadow Ball exploded...followed by all five of the trees falling over from the punishment they took.
“That was the Rebound Shot. Normally a Pokemon Move like that would only hit one target and explode, but with the right control of energy, it's very much possible to have it strike multiple targets. While it may or may not be the best move for a straight up battle, when trying to take out opponents unseen, with some practice, it's the perfect move. Not to mention it can also let you save up on your strength what with one shot being usable on multiple targets,” Alice explained.
“So it’s like pinball,” Scep scratched his chin. “Gard does stuff like that, though he sometimes uses live ammo, if you know what I mean.”
“...I can see that happening. Psychic power + body...instant live ammo…” Alice sweat dropped. “Anyway, to use the move, you’re gonna need to have good control of your energy...something you had practice with using that Substitute. Assuming you’re using an energy based move, you need to make the attack solid enough to actually rebound, but not so much that it won’t either dissipate eventually, or blow up after a few rebounds. You can try it now if you’d like,” Alice nodded.
Scep nodded. “Seems simple enough,” a small greenish blue ball of energy formed around the tip of his finger and he fired at a tree. The small attack bounced off...and smacked Rascal in the forehead. He grinned and turned to Alice. “Easy peasy.”
“Lemon I’m gonna squeeze you to death!” Rascal growled as he pounced on Scep. What followed was a comical dust cloud with various random limbs being visible every now and then.
“...Rebound Shot. Mastered. We can move on...after they’re done fighting,” Alice sighed. The others just nodded.
After those two stopped fighting...and getting any injuries bandaged up, Alice was explaining the next move. “This one is a tough move, partly due to the mental discipline needed...and the fact that we don’t have anyone to help us practice with,” Alice explained.
“I have plenty of mental discipline,” Scep remarked. “Just ask my psychiatrist.”
“Alright,” Alice nodded, not wanting to dig too deeply into that one. “This move is called the Void Mind Shield. It's a, so far, absolute defense against Psychics trying to probe our minds. However it's only absolute when it's fully mastered. Other than that, it's mostly just a strong mental barrier that while you can’t break, it's still possible to go around it...if you know what I mean,” she explained. “I can’t actually show you since we don’t have any Psychics to help us, but I’ll do my best to explain. First of all, do you know how normal mental barriers work?”
“Kinda,” Scep shrugged. “I’m okay with mine, but never gave it much thought. I’m usually out of danger by the time they know I’m there, dudette. ‘Sides, aint no barrier Gard can’t crack.”
“Oh, he won’t be able to crack this one. Well...he shouldn’t at any rate. A normal barrier works by forcefully keeping a psychic out. However...if a psychic is either strong enough and/or has enough time to work with, there isn’t a barrier they can’t crack, cause it’d be like repeatedly hitting a wall with a sledge hammer or wrecking ball. The wall’s gotta give eventually. That’s why we developed this technique. You see, what makes this tricky is that instead of putting up a barrier, we’re inverting it,” Alice explained.
“Now pretend I’m not a scientist,” Scep said. “And say it again.”
“Basically a Psychic needs to get a hold of your mind to actually work with it. Mental barriers are walls to prevent that, but like all walls, they can only take so much before they break. So, instead of creating a wall, we create a vacuum or void. Hence the name,” Alice said. “Basically the idea is that, one of my ancestors figured, if a Psychic wanted in, then let’s give them what they want. they don’t have to break any walls, but all they’ll find is a void. They can’t work if we give them nothing to work with,” she said.
“That’s easy,” Scep said. “Gard says there’s nothing up here to begin with.” He chuckled.
“...moving on,” Alice sighed, somehow she got the feeling she wouldn’t get along with this ‘Gard’ at all. “The key to using this technique is a tricky state of mind. As we are trying to create a void, you need to be able to temporarily detach yourself from the world. Basically picture a black sphere, and picture yourself entering it. You and the world are no longer connected. You are at the moment, a void,” Alice said as she took on a meditative pose (sitting lotus style) and closed her eyes, her expression becoming more and more neutral with every word till it was completely blank.
Scep put his ear close to her head and tapped it. “Huh...It really does work. I can’t hear a thing in there.”
“...that’s cause you’re not Psychic, dead brain,” Rascal snorted. “You wouldn’t be able to hear anything from her head even if she wasn’t using the void mind shield.”
“Oh well aren’t you the psychic expert, dark rat.” Scep scoffed.
“Enough, both of you,” Alice said, her voice stern, yet it seemed to lack any real emotion behind it. “Another benefit of this move is peace of mind. Anyway, I’ve taught you the basics of it, so I’d like you to practice it when you can,” she said as she got up, emotion returning to her expression. “This is a move we’ll probably have to work on ongoing, so there’s no big hurry to master it. Just give it a shot for now,” Alice ordered.
“Eh, I’ll try dudette.” Scep got into a prayer position. “Char always griped how I need to learn to more ‘at peace’ with myself. Almost cut off my head a couple times, ‘cause of it.”
“...somehow I don’t think Char actually has peace of mind. Almost cutting a person’s head off cause he’s not more at peace is NOT a sign of peace of mind,” Alice sweat dropped.
“Oh no, he’s very peaceful when he isn’t slaughtering his enemies.” Scep said with a comfirming nod.
“Somehow that feels like a contradiction…,” Shade sweat dropped by dropped it all the same.
“...okay, the next move...should be a piece of cake for you,” Alice said. “Its called the Line Dash. Its not so much a technique as it is a skill,” Alice explained. “What it simply is, is training to allow one to move quickly even when standing on the bare minimum of area, namely a narrow area like a clothesline or thin beam,” she explained.
“Don’t I already do that, Dudette?” Scep asked. “I’m pretty quick.”
“Yes, but are you THIS quick?” Alice chuckled, before she back flipped up the tree, and jumped up and up till she was near the top with a branch so thin, it could probably only JUST support her weight. Even then for how long was anyone’s guess. Smirking, she ran forward, running on the branch so quickly, her feet seemed to barely touch it, before she leaped off, landing in a half-slide on another thin branch, before moving and leaping from tree to tree, before ending in a somersault, landing back right in front of Scep. “I should also mention, that move was derived from Ninjutsu. Yeah, one of my ancestors was a Ninja,” she said with a small smirk.
“Pfft. I can do that dudette.” Scep smirked and put a hand on his hip. “How do you think I became so renowned in Hoenn?”
“Well then, show me what you got,” she chuckled. The small grin on her face made it clear she was enjoying this.
Scep rotated his joints and snorted. “I’m a tree dweller by nature for a reason,” and then he took off like a flash, jumping onto a tree trunk. His fingers gave him perfect suction as he flipped upwards and twirled as he somersaulted onto a pair of small branches light enough not to break them. Hooking and hopping from branch to trunk in seconds, showing off his species aboral nature, before coming to stop near the group. “Easy.”
“...natural Sceptile abilities aside, I’m starting to think he was meant to be a Fox Pokemon at one point or another,” Shade mused. “Even I didn’t get it THAT quickly,” she sounded slightly jealous at that. Understandable, as she started her training the same time as Alice.
“I’m a born natural,” Scep smirked.
“I think the part where you’re learning and using my moves with barely any difficulty can confirm that,” Alice chuckled. “Alright, the next move isn’t gonna be as easy,” Alice chuckled as she moved around him a little, but when he turned to see her, to his surprise, she was gone.
Scep stiffened up and shook a bit. His eyes widened and he shot to his feet. “Oh no, no, no. Not these illusion tricks again. I had enough with Roa...especially when she was going on her tangents.”
“It's not an illusion,” Shade commented. “Look closely. You should find her if you do,” she suggested.
Scep sighed in relief. Roa’s illusions were especially terrifying and he didn’t feel like going through them again. He should have known Alice wouldn’t have done so, but it was more out of habit really. He quickly scanned the environment, using his keen thieving eyes he’d honed over the years to spot any number of hidden trinkets.
“This next move is called the Presence Veil. It's one of the more advanced moves, and frankly, I haven’t fully mastered it,” Alice explained. “This move was invented from what little knowledge my family has gathered on the training of Aura Guardians. It works by inverting our auras in such a way that we become...unnoticed by normal senses. However, while it SOUNDS like the perfect stealth move...even the current complete form of it is hardly perfect. If someone is actively looking for you, they can see through the veil, not to mention it's useless against Aura Sense, so an Aura Guardian or a Lucario would be able to pierce the veil easily enough.”
“Oh I think I’ve heard of this trick,” Scep said. “I think some of our assassins do that...I think. Don’t think I’ve asked them. I always did great already.”
“Not surprising. It would make sense for assassins to develop similar moves. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere out there is an assassin who’s created a more superior version of this move,” Alice shrugged. “Either way, this is our next lesson. For now, we’re gonna need you to get in tuned with your own aura. And no, we’re not going to suddenly be able to fire Aura Spheres or something. You need to be born with that ability. But people learn to manipulate their aura plenty of times in life.”
“Well, hope you’re patient, cause just the first step isn’t easy,” Shade mused as Alice got into a lotus position. “The best way to get attuned with your own aura is via meditation. In fact, it's safe to say that only a handful of Foxes have ever fully mastered this move.”
“Is there a less boring way?” Scep asked. “Not exactly the most patient type.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll just do this in sessions. A couple of hours a day. This isn’t a move that can be learned quickly,” Alice sighed. “And as far as I know, there isn’t a faster way. Pokemon are by nature able to manipulate their own Aura in a way, though none as well as the Lucario line. This exercise is meant to allow us to consciously do that, rather than our normal instinctive way.”
“Well if you say so,” Scep shrugged. He trusted her well enough to listen.
Two hours later, they had stopped the session. “Alright, that’s enough for now. Did you start to grasp your own aura even if just a little? It should feel like a flowing river in your own body,” Alice said.
Well, there was a river of saliva running down his mouth as he snored in his pose.
“...I see you’re gonna need a LONG time to learn this move…” Alice deadpanned, as Rascal smirked, before forming a small block of ice...and putting it on Scep’s head. Naturally this caused the Sceptile to jump at the sudden awakening.
Scep was normally one for flight. That was his thing, however, he was one who enjoyed a good nap. So he didn’t run for this hills. No, his first thought was of Rascal’s ice. Said Rascal found a Leaf Blade next to his throat in mere seconds. Scep was hovering over him, hissing angrily as he bared his dagger like teeth. “Don’t do that again.”
“No promises here,” Rascal grinned, as with a poof, it revealed he had been threatening a Substitute dummy, the real one reappearing next to Alice who had a deadpan look on her face.
“Some days I worry I’m gonna have to stop the two of you from killing each other…” she sighed in mild annoyance.
“He’d gonna get what’s coming to him, dudette.” Scep growled.
“Not on my watch,” she sighed. “Rascal, please stop bothering Scep at every chance you find. Scep, please don’t kill Rascal.”
Rascal snorted at that, but said, “Fine,” all the same.
Scep snorted. “Fine. I won’t kill him. I’ll just kick his behind from here to the other earth when I get the chance. Won’t even see it coming.”
“...I can live with that,” she sighed. “Anyway, the last move we’ll work on today is one you shouldn’t have any issues with. It's the Smoke Shift move. It's basically using a smokescreen/smoke bomb to make a quick exit,” she explained, before tossing him the smoke bomb. “Let’s see how far you can get before the smoke dissipates.”
“Oh I know this all too well,” Scep smirked and dropped the bomb. He had a bit of a plan in mind. There was a small town nearby and he wanted to browse the local selections. When the smoke cleared, he was gone.
“Rascal, you might want to watch your back,” Alice said simply. Didn’t take a genius to figure out why.
Rascal didn’t have any time to think on that since he was sent flying by a well placed kick by Scep. “Take that, rat!” He shook his fist before throwing down another smoke bomb and vanishing.
“Well, I see you’ve gotten that move down pat,” Alice chuckled, looking towards Rascal who was hanging from a tree, his eyes swirly. “It's getting late. Let’s go back. We have a few more days to practice more,” she said, to which they nodded, before heading back to town.
The next few days went by relatively simply, with the Fox gang spending most of the time training, especially Alice who was working on mastering more of the moves a Zoroark could learn, which was successful, if the fact that she managed to use Night Daze was any indication. However, the time wasn’t just spent for them training and the carriages getting fixed.
Toichi sighed as he put down the gem he was working on. Smiling slightly, he thought of why he was doing this in the first place. He always enjoyed listening to Alice’s tales of her family, and her life before coming to Equus, and he particularly liked hearing about the things the humans had achieved before coming here. When the thought about that, he couldn’t help but wonder if Equus could use things like that too. While some things would be hard to remake (not to mention probably frowned upon, like those ‘Pokeballs’), but some of the technological wonders that the humans achieved should be possible with a smart application of magic. Heck, some of the devices he had given her for use on her heists proved that. Speaking of which, another change that had happened since he met Alice, was that he felt like he wanted to question so many things. He questioned why his special talent was enchantment, questioned what he wanted to do from now on, really, even if he was only in his teenage years, he was looking forward a lot.
Looking back at the device he was working on, he couldn’t help but smile and silently thank his new idol again. If she hadn’t appeared in their lives, would he have lived his entire life pretending to be his parents’ servant? Would his parents have been living in fear for the rest of their lives? Well, he’d never know, and really, he was happy to leave it like that. So with that in mind, he continued to tinker with the spell matrix.
The days went by quickly, and before long, the carriages were fixed, and Sleight had managed to replace most of the props that had been badly damaged. “Well, it took a while, but we’re finally ready to move on,” he chuckled.
“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t enjoy our little break,” Storm snorted, elbowing him lightly. “We’ve been so busy going everywhere lately that I think we all enjoyed this chance to just relax and unwind.”
Several servants nodded behind her.
“Well, guess you’re right,” Sleight chuckled as they boarded the carriage. “Alright everyone, all aboard, cause next stop is Las Pegasus,” he said with a grin.
“Alright, let’s go everyone!” Alice smiled as they were soon on their way once again.
Ending theme:
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I am beginning to like that opening theme......:3
6555323
Glad to hear it. Its supposed to symbolize her family, particularly the first line of of the song, which roughly translates to "Justice that deceives the world"
You know, I'm debating if I'd rather have not known all these techniques she has, and seeing them in action anyway.
6555486
I sorta wanted to justify some of her unique move pool. That and I felt it would be good for a filler. Sides.
There's more where that came from. Those were just a few of them.
So where was Jonathan's team within this duration of a few days?
6556860
They're...somewhere. Lol. I knew I was forgetting something...
6557535 Does that mean you'll have to go back and fix it.
6557621
I'll add something in the next chapter
6557673 i lnow this is gonna sound strange but will Jonathan ever get an actual training chapter? Or someoje to help him control his aura
6558484
He's had a small one in the past. He's learning to fully control his abilities, but Aura...still needs work. As none of his team can actually use Aura...he's experimenting bit by bit. He'll get it eventually.
6558531 i can understand Noone on his team can use aura but you'd think throughout their travels they'd find either another Lucario or somemon with better knowledge on control tips
6559007
I'll admit, I wanted Jonathan to learn it his own way, eventually developing his own style that is closer to those fantasy martial arts
6559280 understandable completely but as a human turned pokemon i was more concerned he doesn't have the natural control of aura (in case of losing control)
6563236
Well...that I chalked up to Heat at least helping him control his strength and teaching him how to fight with his new body...more or less. Haha. Well, its not easy, and well, putting in another Lucario spending time teaching him...not so easy. Especially considering his current life of being on the go. Well, seeing as he was last in Ponyville, I think he'd have asked Lucario and Korrina for some tips.
you may want to put new videos in the opening theme as the ones you used have been copyright takedown
7108983
Something like that. I have a few files, but I just haven't felt motivated to finish. Sorry, its life and how quiet the group has been
7148818 Honestly the only one I had difficulties on was that accursed gyroscope flying minigame. Other than that I had a lot of fun through the game.