• Published 12th Nov 2014
  • 4,361 Views, 460 Comments

A New World, A New Stage - tdnpony



A Thief and a Cop find themselves in a strange new world. Watch as their game of cat and mouse continues even in Equus.

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Twenty Fifth Heist

Opening theme:

The next morning, the paper arrived bright and early, like usual, and Lala picked it up and took her usual seat behind the desk. The headline was something about how a roulette wheel had gone missing, and she shook her head.

Bit’s form slowly floated in, his head lower than usual as his failure weighed heavily on him. “Hello, Bit,” she said, surprised slightly that she said it first. Upon hearing no reply, she looked up from her paper to see that he was...despondent, crushed. There weren’t many times she’d seen a ‘mon this sad. She put her paper down and walked over to the Program, gathering him up for a hug.

“How did I fail?” he whispered. “How...could I fail?”

Lala connected the dots quickly. “You were there?”

“I tried to stop it,” he said with a nod. “I failed. Miserably. I thought I stood a chance, but James was right. How could I have failed so badly?”

“Sometimes, Bit, you meet someone better than you.” She hugged him a bit tighter before letting him go and nodding. “Doesn’t mean you can’t pick yourself up and try again.”

At that moment, Sam came down from above, noticed the scene, and wisely decided to just keep his mouth shut and go on to work. He stopped, briefly laying a claw on Bit’s form and looking him in the eyes, letting him know he had others to count on, before going on his way.

“Well, at least having you around shuts him up,” Lala joked. “First time he’s not flirted with me.”

Bit gave a weak smile, but it was a forced one. “I...I think I’m going to sit in the lobby for now. At least, until I can compile the data from last night, so that Ace has an answer as to how this could possibly happen.”

“It’s your home,” Lala said softly before returning to her paper. “Do as you will.”

At that moment, some of the new tenants came down. “Morning, everyone,” Alice yawned as her team followed after her. “What we got for breakfast?”

“There are some leftover Berries from the first harvest that James and the Nurem family store in their apartments,” Lala replied while turning the page, making sure the front one was displayed prominently to the lobby. “Though if you’d like to bask in sorrow instead, I think Bit still has plenty on tap.”

“Thanks. It's been a long time since I had some good old Oran Berries. Anything you guys want?” Alice asked her team.

“We’ll go see what else they’ve got, then we’ll decide,” Shade answered, earning a nod from her former trainer.

While walking to get the berries, Alice noticed the paper and asked, “Fox strikes again?”

This time, it was Bit that answered. “Yes. And I failed to stop it from happening. I’ve...never failed in doing what I set out to do before. It’s a...novel feeling. I don’t like it.” He looked up from the floor, looking from the headlines that Lala was reading to Alice’s form, a ticking noise slowly growing louder as he went over the data, especially the information right in front of him. “...Alice, did you ever meet any other Zoroark in your time on Equus?”

Alice blinked at the odd question, her mind moving quickly. Considering that Bit was a Porygon-Z, a computer based Pokemon, she had an inkling as to why he was asking. “Meet? No. Saw? Yes. There was this Zoroark in Manehattan I saw once. And I saw two more in Ponyville, and of course there’s Fox. A little hard to not see her whenever she makes headlines,” Alice answered, giving him a half-truth. .

The information about where Alice had been, along with the list of heists that had been pulled by the Fox in Equus and other Zoroarks, was quickly cross-referenced. “Interesting,” Bit mused. “Several possible options spring up upon this information...do keep an eye out, Alice. Fox seems to be hounding your steps.”

Alice’s eyes narrowed just a little, not enough to be noticed. So Bit managed to notice THAT pattern, huh? Well then… “I’ll keep that in mind. That, or she could be running away, and I just happened to be travelling with Sleight Hoof when it happened,” she said, deciding to try and lead him down another path.

Bit blinked, but rotated one of his arms in a ‘go on’ gesture, or as well as he could approximate one.

“There’s this Lucario who’s been on her case. I didn’t think much about it when I first saw him in the paper, but the more I read, the more I’m starting to think he might be Jonathan. Jonathan’s the cop who was assigned her case, and he’s been chasing her for 5 years now, and knowing him, something like this wouldn’t stop him. Heck, from the looks of it, he went straight after her,” she then giggled. “He always was cute when he got so determined. Fox may be a lot of things, but I know she’s not stupid. In this world, we’ve all been stripped of most of the things we had access to on Earth. So naturally, Fox lost her hideouts in the process, and is probably now running to keep away from Jonathan.”

Bit dinged a few times before making a sighing noise. “Should I meet this Jonathan, I will attempt to collaborate with him, then. I do hope someone like him would have insight into last night’s...dismal failure.”

She was about to leave it at that, but then something came over her again, and before she realized it she had said, “Actually, if you do meet him, tell him where I am. I do miss him,” she said, her cheeks becoming slightly red when she said that.

It would appear that Equestrian Timing still had a sense of humor, at least, judging by the way that Christine and Scep attempted to sneak into the lobby unnoticed at that moment...well it would have been if they didn’t have this odd smell coming from them that even Alice could smell despite her nose not being as strong as natural born Pokemon.
.
“Don’t bother trying you two. You may have washed the sex off, but I can smell the mate scent from up here,” Shade called out from the second floor.

“Mated Pokemon have a scent?” Alice blinked, before going into researcher mode. “That’s interesting. Bit, what do you know about that?”

Bit shrugged and whirred before accessing the relevant files. “Mated Pokemon tend to excrete a fluid during the act of coitus, unique to the ‘mon in question, that marks their mate as ‘theirs’, different from the fluids most would think of. It tends to be located near the salivary glands, and is linked to ‘love bites,’ during which the Marking occurs. The more predatory and monstrous the ‘mon, the stronger the scent of the Mark.”

As he said that, Alice continued to list it down on the notepad she had pulled out from her mane, all the while looking like a kid in a candy store. “Fascinating,” she smiled again, before looking at some older notes. “Now if only I could find more proof about my theory of human and Pokemon relations in their origins. It won’t do much now, but I hate leaving things hanging,” she muttered as she walked up to her room, breakfast all but forgotten.

Bit looked to the Spinaraks and tilted his head to the side. “She is aware that the Legends are on Equus as well, that she could go see them, or that I did and still have information from exchanging with the Regi Trio, right? I could tell her about the origins of humanity.”

The Spinarak twins shared a look, before saying,

“She did.”

“But she-”

“-and we quote-”

“-did not want-”

“-to take-”

“-the easy way.”

Both of them shook their heads. “She’s worked too long on this to just take an easy way out,” they said in stereo. “She’s stubborn that way.”

Bit nodded as well. “Well, I do have the notes from the facility...and there are more than a few things in my archives she might want to know about. But I’ll not talk about them around the others.” The program looked to the ceiling to emphasize who he was talking about.


Jonathan sighed as he and his team stepped out of the wagon. It was a little strange that it took them this long to get to Las Pegasus, but there was a good reason for that. After the incident in Ponyville, he had went to Korrina and Lucario, asking for help. No matter how he spliced it, he just wasn’t getting good enough control over his Aura abilities for some reason or other. Lucario had agreed to help him train, which yielded...mixed results to say the least. On one hand, he had gotten a decent grasp of his aura, enough so that the use of his ‘special style’ didn’t tire him out so quickly anymore, and enough so that he was starting to be able to blend in various martial arts he had learned while back on Earth. Of course, as it was now, he still wasn’t about to pick fights with any strong Pokemon just yet.

“Alright, so now that we’re here, where do we start?” Howl asked as he padded up next to him.

“Same place as always. The news,” Jonathan nodded, before picking up a newspaper. True enough… “Dammit. We were late…”

“Fox strikes again?” Echo asked with a sigh, before Jonathan showed her the paper. “Called it.”

“We’d better get to the Guard Station,” Jonathan nodded. “Maybe we can still pick up on her trail...but considering this looks like one of her ‘play heists’, odds are, she’s still in the city,” he added.

“Not so fast,” Trixie said. “We still need to find our lodging. And Trixie still needs to prepare her show, so nobody is going anywhere just yet,” she said.

“Right,” Jonathan sighed. “But let’s try to make it quick. The longer we wait, the trail might go cold...of course, seeing as the heist had been done last night, I think we have ample amount of time before it starts to get cold.”


After they got everything in order, Jonathan and his team went asking around for the location of the Guard Station. Finding it wasn’t too hard, neither was getting clearance to see the Chief of the Day Guard. It seemed now that he had been given special permission by the Princesses, he was essentially a special ops officer. As such, it wasn’t long before he was standing outside the office, waiting for her to return from speaking with a with a witness of the recent heist. It wasn’t long before the door opened, revealing a mare and a Porygon-Z.




“Another recruit from Canterlot for me to train?” she asked him, getting her office door with a quick flash of her horn. “Or is there another reason you’re waiting outside my office like a statue?”

In response, Jonathan quickly saluted, then walked into the room. “Officer Jonathan Trace, Baltimare Guard, and Canterlot Pokemon Special Division, reporting for duty,” he said, though he noticed that the Porygon-Z perked up a little at his name for some reason.

“Hm? I don’t remember the Guard Captain of Baltimare ever saying anything about a transfer,” Ace commented. “So, why are you here?”

“I’m not here for a transfer. I’ve been assigned Fox’s case, and I’m here chasing after her,” Jonathan explained. “I just arrived here today, and from the looks of it, she got here first.”

“Ahh...” she frowned as she walked into the room, gesturing at him to come with her. “So you’re specialize in catching this pompous stage magician, or at least attempting to I’d wager?” she inquired.

“Well, yes. No offense...but from the tone of voice, I get the sinking feeling you’re not taking her seriously,” Jonathan sighed, his memory of Canterlot still VERY fresh.

“Oh no, I’m taking her very seriously,” Ace said pointedly. “I just dislike the blatant disregard she has for the law and those who have to waste their time attempting to stop her.”

“Well, alright then. Just checking. The Guard Captain in Canterlot when I was there didn’t take her seriously and well...everyone knows how that turned out,” Jonathan nodded.

“Yes, remind me why you’re the one standing here instead of there being an actual ‘stallionhunt’ out for this fool,” Ace said, shaking her head. “No offense kid.”

“Because said ‘fool’ isn’t as much of a fool as you might think,” Jonathan said, his eyes narrowing slightly, before he shook his head. “Fox isn’t as good as she is for being impulsive. Most if not all her heists are preceded with plans and schemes she had likely prepared ahead of time. Thinking of her like any other thief just won’t cut it.”

“Well obviously,” Ace said dryly. “Doesn’t change that it’s a waste of my time and resources, but that’s neither here nor there. What are you here for in specific sir?”

“The same reason I’ve been through the last several towns for the last 3 weeks. I’m trying to catch her, but at the moment, all I can do is try and help to coordinate the local Guards to try to catch her. Something that is easier said than done due to the fact that I don’t know if and when she will move on to the next town,” Jonathan sighed, before showing her a map of Equestria he had. One that was notably marked up. “As you can see, she’s been quite a busy thief.”

Ace studied it for a moment before nodding her head. “Yes, and at this rate you’re probably never going to catch her,” the mare observed. “You’re going where she is, not where she’s going, and if she keeps getting things done in a single night and then vanishing...”

“I’m well aware of that. And I HAVE been trying to predict where she will go next...something that is notably easier now that she’s already hit most of the major cities and towns,” Jonathan sighed in annoyance. “Problem is, I can’t be sure until she sends a notice...but that’s neither here nor there. Point is, we know she’s here, and knowing her, I doubt she’s gonna stop with one of her ‘play heists’ like this. Especially in a city like this.”

“Oh? What makes my ‘beautiful’ Las Pegasus such an interesting destination for her?” Ace asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jonathan just leveled a deadpan stare at her.

“Does she enjoy the gambling or is it the sun?” Ace inquires.

“Cute,” he deadpanned. “But seriously, you DO realize that Las Pegasus is also sometimes called the Sin City of Equestria, right? A city like this is probably BRIMMING with potential targets for her.”

“Of course I realize that, which is why it’s extremely annoying that she’s here wasting my time along with the time of every single one of my other guards who have to stop doing their jobs to go and chase her on an ultimately meaningless hunt,” Ace stated flatly.

“Well I can give you some good news on that regard. She’s probably had her fun already, so the next notice she’ll send, will very likely be connected to a crime lord or something. Its the same M.O. she used back on Earth,” Jonathan sighed.

“...” Ace sighed hard. “You know, there are times that I wish this sort of person would just be a private detective instead of a thief.”

“You’re not the only one,” Jonathan sighed. “Honestly, back on Earth I often wondered what she’s doing on that side of the law considering how much good she did at times.”

“From what Bit told me, it’s a family brainwashing kind of thing, or at least a mantle of some kind,” the mare grunted. “Pass it on to the kids telling them it’s the Honest to Celestia proof and they’ll believe it.”

“There are no confirmations that any of the previous Foxes were related at all. Of course, I also thought something along that lines for the likely reason,” Jonathan simply said. “And mantel or not, it sure works. Every last Fox has been known to be very...passionate about what they do. My ancestors can all attest to that.”

“...” Ace looked at him for a long moment before shaking her head. “Son, if your ancestors failed that often they should have found another occupation.”

“...low blow,” Jonathan deadpanned. “I’ll have you know, with the exception of Fox, ALL of my family, myself included, have boasted a 100% catch rate for criminals we’ve pursued. Furthermore, my family are the ONLY officers who have ever gotten even CLOSE to catching Fox. I even managed to catch her once...then she turned the whole thing into an escape artist trick…”

Ace shrugged seeing that that particular conversation wasn’t going anywhere. “So, your advice?”

“For starters, let me tell you what I’ve worked out so far. First of all, as I’m sure you’ve probably figured out by now, Fox is a former human, same as me,” Jonathan started. “Like all former humans, we’ve lost all of our resources from back on Earth. Yet despite that, Fox STILL remains able to move from town to town with ease. That implies that…” he led on.

“That she found Equestrian friends,” Ace finished with a small nod. “Question, how much actual magic have you employed against her, Guard level casters?”

“Whatever the towns had been willing to afford. Security charms don’t do much. Magical traps? Would work, if she didn’t keep fooling some guards to trigger them for her, not to mention the traps SHE sets. Then on top of that is her assistants. The Pokemon that help her with her heists...aside from the Sceptile, all of them were the same ones she had from back on Earth. Heck, the only time so far she’s ‘failed’ is when Princess Twilight switched out the target with a decoy, and from the little message Fox left for her, she was playing,” Jonathan sighed, shaking his head. “Unicorns haven’t been so effective either, since even magical grips don’t do much against her tricks. Makes it impossible for them to concentrate.”

“Has anyone tried throwing fireballs yet, or ice, or electricity?” Ace asked, listing off the three basics.

“Tried that. Especially the fireballs. Her web balls are resistant to all three. Not to mention there’s never a guarantee that the target is real with how she works. The only times there was some NEAR success...was with that Hydreigon and his team I met a while ago, but I don’t recommend it,” Jonathan sighed. “Honestly, who uses area attacks in a building with pillars? They could have brought the house down. Not to mention we’re trying to CATCH her. Not KILL her.”

“Yes, I can see how that would be a problem with a Hydreigon,” Ace said with a nod. “We had one of those trying to do a bit of destruction on the outskirts of town, thankfully we had enough ice specialists over there to drive it off.” She frowned. “That being said, there are a bunch of AOE spells we could use that do non-lethal damage.”

“Then prep them. Our best bet to catch her is to incapacitate her,” Jonathan noded. “Just a warning though, like always, even with AOE attacks, Fox may or may not be in the area of effect. There is a very real possibility that she will try to make us take each other out of the fight.”

“My husband ran into a bit of that last night, yes,” Ace agreed with a small nod of her head.

“Good. Now, moving on. There is the issue of who her host might be. We already know that she’s travelling with someone. Problem is, we don’t know who she’s traveling with,” Jonathan continued.

“No information at all?” she asked with a frown.

“None. Assuming they left Baltimare the day after the first heist, unfortunately they did not take public transportation. And any notable records of people leaving on foot were more or less eclipsed with all the Pokemon related issues at the time,” Jonathan shook his head.
Ace frowned for a moment. “How expensive have her heists been do you think, in terms of how many bits had to be put into them to carry out?” she asked shrewdly.

“Hard to say. Many of her tricks are similar to how she did it on Earth, though some notably less extravagant. Furthermore, with her new powers, she’s more than able to make up for her lack of resources to make her tricks. As for her metal balls...we can’t be sure, since the mechanics seem simple enough,” Jonathan explained.

The unicorn nodded and closed her eyes. Another dead lead. “Maybe I’m asking you the wrong questions,” she mused before opening her eyes and glancing at him. “Tell me everything she’s done since she got here, that you’ve been aware of at any rate.”

“From the records we’ve got, she’s hit several cities, normally sticking to one heist each. However, her actual ‘play heists’ have been few in comparison. Most of her heists have unraveled a criminal element of some kind, which is why I believe she’s not done with Las Pegasus yet,” Jonathan explained. “In terms of targets, they’ve varied, though the only thing in common is that all were valuables...except Tall Tale, in the sense that it wasn’t actually anything tangible.”

“Oh?” Ace inquired, raising an eyebrow at him.

“The mayor was ousted for being in league with several criminal groups. His reputation and good name were completely shattered,” he said simply.

“Right,” Ace mused with another nod. “Bit said that it was something similar to that, at least that she mostly targeted criminals. So... I guess we know where her next real heist will be, the biggest criminal she can find because when you’re a magician, why bother with the small stages.”

“Not always. She is also efficient. Most if not all the criminal groups she ousted….once she was done, they never got back up again,” Jonathan said. “She might also aim for those she can permanently ‘kill’.”

“You know, the more I hear about her, the more I want to give her a lecture about wasted talents...” Ace muttered.

“Get in line,” Jonathan chuckled. “So...now what? We play the waiting game again? Cause at this rate, unless Fox makes a move, it looks like we’re stumped.”

“Personally, I’m going to finish filing the paperwork she created last night that my husband was too busy getting ‘unwebbed’ to do, and then go back to the job of keeping the ponies from starting a streetwar with the Pokemon,” Ace said with a sigh. “No offense, Jonathan was it? But this is really a rather minor blip on the radar, and one that doesn’t seem to have much long term effect in good ponies or Pokemon’s lives.”

“None taken. Fox may have been on the most wanted list, both here and on Earth, but her priority level...really kinda low since comparatively speaking….she’s harmless,” Jonathan nodded.

Ace nodded and frowned faintly. “I can offer you one of our Temp Desks near Bit, a few of the guards if you really need them, and access to a ‘moving library’ of knowledge but that’s about all unless you have something really solid for me,” she said, shaking her head.

“Hm….if only we could narrow the search. Fox wouldn’t appear as anything but a Zoroark. She’s too proud of her title to not be anything other than the symbol of every Fox, but that won’t work. We can’t just go catching random Zoroarks,” he sighed.

“Yeah, a sheriff by the name of Lonestar was employing one as a detective last time I checked a bit out of the city,” Ace said, shaking her head. “I’m not the kind of mare who goes after people based on Race, hence why we have a few griffon guards and such.”

“That’s good. I hate those kinds of people. They don’t do good jobs since they’re too bigoted to see the reality,” Jonathan nodded. “Well, so all we know is that Fox is definitely a Zoroark, is here, and really that’s about it.”

“You know, Bit mentioned something interesting,” Ace commented. “He said with illusions, she may just be a he, disguised as a she.”

“Fox is a she. I have dealt with her enough to know that. If not….” Jonathan suddenly looked a little green when he thought of the implications.

“Actor like that could do a lot of things to your mind,” Ace replied with a soft smirk before frowning. “And how would you know for certain?”

“....for starters, she kept flaunting her...assets at times back when we were on Earth,” Jonathan sighed, before adding, this time moving closer to her, “And between you and me...we kinda locked lips in Canterlot when I had her pinned down. She did it to get away, but I was still caught off guard okay,” he said, blushing slightly at the last part.

“Uhuh,” she said before shrugging. “In the future if that happens again, throat punch her. If nothing else it’ll stagger her.”

“...not a good idea. I’m still not 100% used to my new strength. I’d rather not risk caving in someone’s throat,” Jonathan sighed. “But this has got me thinking...Zoroarks are mostly male, and assuming that Fox wasn’t acting as a girl the whole time, and by the way, please stop pointing that out, I think I’m gonna hurl if I keep having that image in my head, but anyway, that could be a good search criteria…” he mused.

“Yes, yes it could,” Ace said, then frowned. “Would she be ‘mated’ with anyone, or have pups?”

“...as far as I know, she isn’t, and Howl, my Mightyena, never said anything about her being mated. He’d have smelt it,” Jonathan shook his head. Though for some reason the idea wanted to make him growl.

“Well then, you know what the factors to consider in your search are?” Ace asked. “You’re looking for a female, un-mated Zoroark who’s new in town. Start there. If you can think of more then add them to that search.”

“Good idea,” Jonathan nodded, before glancing at the clock. “Wow, time sure flew. I didn’t realize we’ve been here for over an hour already,” Jonathan blinked.

“Keep going at this rate and my paperwork will go bad,” Ace smirked and shook her head. “So, anything else?”
“I dunno. I think that’s about it for now. I’ll see what I can do about that search,” Jonathan nodded, as he was about to leave.

Ace frowned for a moment before speaking up. “You could pay a visit to the Nurems, Vincent can scan the city last time I checked.”

“I’ll consider that,” Jonathan nodded. However, suddenly there was a small disturbance in the office, as the receptionist’s voice was suddenly heard. “Hey! You can’t go in there without permission!” Before the door swung open, revealing an out of breath Zoroark. A FEMALE out of breath Zoroark. The moment she saw the Lucario, she recognized his eyes, and the bracelet he wore. “Jonathan?”


Alice had been idly reading a book she had on her when she noticed Bit come back. “Yo, Bit how was your day?” she asked pleasantly.

“Eventful,” Bit said simply, before adding. “Oh and Alice, there is something you should know. Earlier at the Guard Station, there was a Lucario. He said his name was Jonathan Trace.”

THAT got Alice’s attention. “Jonathan? Jonathan is here?” she asked, for some reason suddenly feeling very excited.

“Affirmative, he was at the Guard Station last I saw,” Bit said...then blinked when there was a Zoroark shaped puff of smoke...and the door opening and closing.


Jonathan stood there, his mouth gaping slightly. Here they were talking about looking for female Zoroarks, and one comes charging into the room. That was when he recognized the voice, and the reading glasses. “A-Alice?”

“It really is you!” she laughed, before promptly tackling him with a hug.

Jonathan was...surprised to say the least. Not that he wasn’t happy, he had been hoping to find her...but at the same time, of all the Pokemon he expected her to be, a Zoroark wasn’t one of them. On top of that, he had never seen her this...affectionate. Sure she’d tackled him with a hug before, but somehow this one felt...different. It didn’t help either when Ace said, “Jonathan, I have paperwork to do, can you fraternize with your apparent long lost lover outside of my office please?”.

That was the last straw. “Wait, but Ace, Alice and I aren’t like that!” Jonathan panicked, and somehow, Alice didn’t seem to notice. “I’ve known her since we were KIDS for Arceus’ sake!” he said, getting more and more flustered.

Ace shrugged. “You’re still hugging in my office,” she said, though she winked at him. “Besides, you don’t want an ‘old mare’ like me to ruin your reunion, go get her a coffee.”

“R-right,” The Lucario nodded, but very much hesitantly. “Alice, let’s talk outside. This...isn’t really the best place for this….”

“Ah, right. Sorry. I was just so excited when I heard you were here,” Alice smiled, before they both walked out of the office.


“Alice? You okay?” Jonathan asked, just a little worried. Alice was still hugging him rather affectionately now that they were in an alleyway not far from the Guard Station. He knew it had been a long time, but he never expected her to be acting so affectionate...and oddly enough, he didn’t really mind it.

That seemed to snap Alice out of whatever she was going through, causing her to let go and look sheepish. “Ah, sorry. I guess its just been so long and really….I don’t know what came over me,” she said, though for some reason something in her didn’t like her letting go of him.

“Yeah...it has been a while,” Jonathan nodded...and tried to ignore the odd feeling that welled up in him when she let go. “So...how’s Equus been treating you?” he asked.

“It's been great…” Alice smiled as the two of them started catching up.


Alice sighed as she got back to the Unity Building. While she was happy that she got to talk to Jonathan, even tell him where she was staying, she couldn’t shake the odd feelings that had been left over from their meeting. It was strange really, she knew she cared for him, but she had never felt like this before. So tired and confused she was, that she only offered a nod of acknowledgement as she passed Lala and went right upstairs. Once she got to her room, she flopped down tiredly on her bed. When she did, Shade glanced at her and chuckled lightly.

“So, I assume you finally got to talk to him?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Alice sighed. “Wasn’t quite the way I expected though…”

“How so?” Shade asked.

“I just felt...weird. Like I didn’t want to be apart from him or something. I’ve...never felt that way before…” Alice admitted.

All her Pokemon shared a deadpan glance at each other when they heard that. Once again they wondered just how someone as intelligent as her could be so dense, a Legendary probably couldn’t break it. “Well, at least it went well,” Rascal deadpanned.

“Not really. Now I’ve got a killer headache,” Alice groaned, having not been feeling ‘herself’ for a while. “Rascal, could you ask downstairs if they have any aspirin?”

“Sure,” Rascal nodded with a light sigh, before going out the door. Making his way down, he was met with the sight of the Kadabra and Leavanny. “Hey, uh...Vincent, right?” Rascal started, catching their attentions.

The Kadabra nodded and folded the paper, putting it on his lap and clearing his throat before responding. “And if I recall correctly, you are...Rascal. It’s nice to finally be able to meet you.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you too, I guess,” Rascal said a little uncertainty. “Er...look, sorry if we just met and I’m already asking, but do you have anything for headaches. Alice has a real bad one right now, so….”

“Ah, if there’s one thing I have a slight excess of, it’s headache medication from my time as an Abra. Nasty thing, overextending yourself with Psychic powers at such a stage. Hurts like...well, I won’t say.” Vincent closed his eyes and opened one hand, causing a small bottle to appear above it in a flash of blue light. He held it out towards the Weavile while saying the next part. “For her...she could probably get away with two tablets like the instructions say, but I’d watch her if I were you. If this medication makes her the slightest bit loopy, she’ll need someone making sure she doesn’t do anything she shouldn’t until it wears off.”

“...duly noted. Thanks again. I’m sure Alice will be too,” Rascal nodded, before running up the stairs with the pills.

“...And give him about ten seconds to realize what he was talking to a Kadabra about…” Vincent muttered before picking the paper up and reading again. “Oh...well now, that’s amusing.”

True enough… “Ya know, I just realized, I got headache medicine from a Kadabra,” Rascal deadpanned as he watched Alice gulp down 2 tablets as instructed.

“Considering some Kadabra are known to cause headaches, it's probably a good thing he has this stuff on the ready,” Shade nodded. “So...is it working?”

“Well...it worked....wonder where he got this stuff. Fastest headache medicine I’ve ever taken,” Alice blinked as her headache pretty much vanished. Then the side effects kicked in. Suddenly, from her perspective, she seemed to see things slowly start to move faster. “Er...guys?” she mumbled.

“What? Why are you talking so slowly?” Shade asked, but from Alice’s perspective, she’s the one talking too fast.

“Okay....this got weird fast…” the Zoroark blinked and got out of bed, yet to her surprise, it felt...longer to reach the ground…

Likewise, to her Pokemon it looked like she was moving in slow motion. “Oh man, what the hell did we give her?!” Rascal balked.

“Well, I’m going to find out,” Shade growled, before going down the stairs.


“Nurem!” came Shade’s angry voice as the Liepard ran down the stairs.

“Yes?” Vincent replied with a quirked eyebrow. “What’s the problem? Did the pills not work?”

“Oh, they worked alright. What I want to know is why Alice looks like someone set her to slow motion. Heck, even WALKING takes her much-much longer than it should physically be possible,” the Liepard angrily said, but in the process, made herself a bit unclear.

Vincent blinked a few times before extending his hand again and resummoning the pill bottle from where it had been taken to his hand. He turned the small plastic thing around and paled. “Oh shit,” he said. “I gave her some of my headache medication, not the over-the-counter stuff.”

“Well that’s just perfect. I hope you have a way of fixing this. If not, you’d better pray its only temporary,” she growled.

Vincent glared, a light blue glow coating his form for an instant before he seemingly calmed down and looked at Shade sadly. “I got these for when I was an Abra, training with Luke, so that I could go to sleep without feeling like my head was on fire. They aren’t permanent or habit-forming, but seeing as she shares your Type, I really, really doubt I could do anything to fix this. I swear to you, had I known, I would have never given you this bottle. Her headache will be gone, but I wouldn’t ask her to do anything quickly. There, ah, is a quick cure, but she won’t thank you for it,” he finished, rubbing his mustache and looking away.

“...I’m afraid to ask, but what is it?”

“About three cups of coffee to help her shake off the feeling of moving through molasses,” Vincent replied to the Liepard. “Of course, once the meds and caffeine wear off, she’d wind up feeling worse than when she started unless she drank a pitcher of water as well.”

“...fine. I’ll write a note, then strap her into bed. I just hope she’s patient. If not...I guess knocking out is an option…” Shade groaned.

Before she left to enact her plan, Vincent called her name to get her attention again.

“What?” Shade sighed.

“Please...I am so very, very sorry. Please believe me when I say that. I didn’t mean to do this to her. I never would do this to anyone intentionally.”

“Yeah, I know. Still doesn’t make this any easier…” Shade sighed. “Trust me kid, I may not look it, but I can tell when people have bad intentions. Its all in the eyes. And you? I get the feeling you wouldn’t hurt a fly if you could.”

“Oh, you got me mostly right...right up until my family is hurt.” Vincent folded up the newspaper, unintentionally showing Shade the headline before continuing. “As Bit and I say to one another, you don’t hurt a member of the Nurem family. Once Lucy’s out of her Heat, I intend to find this Johnathan that he told me about and see if we can’t corner this blasted Fox and make her understand that statement.”

“Ah...I see. Well, good luck with that...though personally I think that sounds kinda excessive...especially since nobody has really been seriously hurt or anything during one of her heists. Lasts I read, any and all injuries from Fox related crimes tended to be either superficial, or purely accidental,” the Liepard chuckled nervously.

“Wounds are more than just the flesh, and more than the skin can scar. Bit doesn’t take failing in his duties well...actually, that’s an understatement. He was as close to breaking since the Lab when he came back from helping the Guard.” Vincent clenched one fist shut, blue light dancing before he calmed himself. “Type restrictions be damned. I will not let this stand.”

“Well alright. But word of advice, I know through Alice that Fox isn’t the number one thief in the world for no reason. The moment the heist begins, some say that anyone trying to stop her are really dancing at her fingertips,” Shade said cryptically, before walking up the stairs.


Alice was NOT enjoying being in slow motion, and needless to say, when Shade came running in with a note that explained that she would likely stay this way for a whole day, she was less pleased. When Shade then wrote a note about the Nurems… Oh crap didn’t even to begin to describe how she was feeling now. At this point, she was so sick of the crap she was getting today that when Shade suggested knocking her out to help time ‘go faster’, she had asked them to make sure she didn’t wake up till morning. And that’s why currently she was passed out with a small bump on her head.


To say that Info Scoop was nervous would be saying that dragons could be slightly covetous of jewels. She’d just seen two Pokemon making some sort of deal in an alleyway, and she had to make sure they didn’t notice her listening in. She was quite thankful for the translation spell she’d had cast on herself so that she could understand Pokemon, but once the ‘mon learned about it on her, they’d been very careful about what they said.

“Got the bits?” the Machoke asked. In response, the Tyrogue pulled a brown sack about an inch closer and opened it up to the larger Fighting-type. It apparently met with his satisfaction, as he picked the sack up and moved it out of sight. After a moment’s worth of rummaging, a dozen small, wrapped candies were given to the Scuffle Pokemon, who pulled a different bag close to him, stuck them in it, and walked off with his new burden. The Superpower Pokemon looked about for a moment more before picking up a few things from his impromptu workspace and walking off in a different direction.

The mare counted to thirty, slowly, before walking to where the deal had gone down, taking note of everything, but finding her eyes attracted to two things.

The first was one of the blue-wrapped candies, apparently left behind by accident. Info picked it up and quickly hid it in her saddlebags, under all her notebooks and pencils.

When she noticed the second thing, she could have sworn her heart stopped for a moment.

It was a note, apparently addressed to the ‘mon who had been here not a moment ago.

Hey, big M, word is some sort of shipment is coming in from the pony capital in two days time. Boss mare says she’d get you more than usual if you performed security for her. You in?

Info Scoop wanted nothing more than to run right to Sleight Hoof and Quick Storm and tell them what she’d learned, but knew that running would only attract attention.

Still, a walk seemed so slow with the payload of information she had.

Ending theme:

Author's Note:

Pat 2 of 4. I'm aiming for a quadruple update to make up for lost time