~?~

We had been best friends for years, and nothing was going to stop that. Sure, we argued sometimes, but that never meant we weren't friends. That's just what we do. We argue, maybe even battle, then stare each other down, laugh it off, fall asleep, and wake up to a brand new day of adventuring. Life is good.

I lingered in the shadows. Kecleon was bound to leave anytime now. It was time for his break after all. And everyone knows that even someone as stubborn as that old shopkeeper had to eat something, or at least get out of his shop for a few seconds. And in those few seconds, I'll have taken everything in his shop without a second thought. All he had to do was leave…

"I'm sure I could grab a quick snack and get back here in less than five minutes…" The Color-Swap Pokémon mumbled to himself as he walked out of his shop in a heartbeat. NOW!

I quickly leaped down from my hiding spot in the crack that so happened to be right above the little carpeted area. I grabbed as many things as I could before walking out of the shop in the opposite direction that Kecleon walked out. Sadly for me, I had a poor awareness system…

"OOF!" I grunted as I walked straight into Kecleon himself. I fell to the ground and everything I held scattered across the floor around the both of us. I looked up worriedly at the Color-Swap Pokemon, and he looked down at me with a poker-face. I wasn't shocked. We had been trying to rob his shop since day one, and we still haven't even gotten close to the stairs… But we had a plan this time…

"How about I give you a five second head start, and then I'll catch you. Hm?" Kecleon asked me. I took that as a great offense, but nodded anyway, then made a dash for the exit. I had only made it a foot away when the old man suddenly appeared before me, thanks to his color changing abilities.

I completely evaded his first blow, which was an attack he attempted with his tongue, then leaped into the air and kicked him right in his gut. I managed take back him up a few steps, but not enough to knock the wind out of him. He attempted another one of his attacks from his tongue, at managed to scrape the side of my face. Around this time was usually when I was caught, but when nothing happened as I crouched into a ball, ready to take any attack he was going to give, I looked up.. and laughed.

The old man's tongue got stuck in between a couple of boulders. His only far range attack was his tongue, and he couldn't even reach me from where he was standing. So he was completely defenseless, and I was free to take whatever I wanted.

"Heh, not so tough now are you?" I asked with a hint of mock in my voice. Kecleon frowned and attempted to punch me. I just laughed again and picked up the items I had dropped and then walked up to Kecleon again. He was shouting gibberish words at me that I didn't both to understand. I stuck my tongue out at him and pulled out a blue colored orb. He looked at it for a bit, wondering what kind of orb mine was. It took him a few short seconds before his eyes bulged in realization. He began to shout again, but I had already disappeared and teleported right by the stairs.

As soon as I made it there, I was bombarded by three of my closest friends. Well… two of them at least. They hugged and congratulated me on finally taking the items from the shop, and all I could do in defense was accept their bone crushing hugs and the oddly painful compliments they gave me. My third friend on the other hand, intently watched the only entrance to the room we were currently in.

"What's the matter?" I asked. This stair case was far away from Kecleon's shop, and we were right next to the stairs. There was nothing that could stop us from taking the stuff now… Right?

"Was Kecleon in any way physically touching you while you teleported here?" He asked. I thought about it for a second. Now that he mentioned it, I do remember him slightly brushing his hand against my right when I began to vanish.

"Yeah, why?" I question-replied. His mouth fell agape and his eyes bulged. That wasn't a good sign.

I turned around and, once again, came face to face with Kecleon again. I stared at him for a bit, and then smiled shyly,

"Heh, heh… I suppose you want me to take back what I said earlier." I said sheepishly while shrinking down slightly. Kecleon shook his head.

"Erm…" I picked up one of the reviver seeds I stole and gave it to the old man with a big smile, hoping he would leave me alone. He just looked at it and smacked it away. There were only two options left then.

"Uh…" I actually didn't want to resort to those last two options. So I made a run for the stairs.

"Oh no you don't!" Kecleon shouted as he chased after me.

My other three friends had also ran for it, but the old man made it to the stairs before all of us, completely blocking our only escape.

"AGH!" We all shouted at once when he shot out his tongue at us and held us together tightly, preventing any other means of escape.

I struggled against his hold. There had to be some way for us to escape! We're master thieves for crying out loud! We always find an escape! Always! We just had to find it! An idea suddenly dawned on me, but I wasn't going to like it…

I opened my mouth widely and chomped down on the old man's tongue. I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as kissing. Right? Either way, I managed to earn a shout from him, which caused his tongue to slightly lose its grip on us. Here was our master escape!

"Liz!" I called. One of my friends, a green snake like creature, turned to look at me. I made a gesture at her, and she nodded in response.

We charged at Kecleon at top speed and rammed into him with synchronization. Thanks to the combined attack, we managed to knock the wind out of him and cause a stagger. He quickly regained himself however and dashed at us. We jumped to the side at perfect timing and attempted our own special combined move. A bluish purple like fire exploded from my mouth, and two long vines stretched out to whack her foe. We had practiced perfecting this move for a special occasion, like so.

We managed to get him from behind. So it was somewhat like a sneak attack, only he knew where we were. The point was, there was a large gap in the ground where the old man once stood. I walked up to the spot and examined it, and for extra precautions, I moved my hand around it to make sure that he didn't just disappear like all of the other times.

"Wow… I think we actually took him out!" Liz exclaimed excitedly. She jumped around and cheered with glee. I couldn't help but join in with her as well. We were actually going to steal something from Kecleon! That was an accomplishment that no one but us could get to!

"Haxel! Liz! Above you!" I heard my other friend shout. Thanks to my trained quick reactions, I turned my head and looked up, but regretted it fully. Kecleon was plummeting towards me, his foot outstretched to make sure that it was the first thing to connect to my face. Everything turned black after that.