Prologue
"Well, that went well," he said with ample sarcasm. "Not only did we miss our mark, but we nearly got caught, Watts was spotted by the security guard, our crobat was left behind, and Peirce got shot! Come on, guys! How hard can it be to steal one measly absol? That thing was barely level three!"
"Cut us some slack, Rift," Ice replied, "It's not our fault that they hired extra guards. We can get it tomorrow night and get Crobat back. It was just some bad luck."
Rift turned and looked at the other five members of his crew. The normally hyper Watts looked nervously at her shiny boots. The giant Peirce was holding a cloth to his bullet wound. Silent Ninja was digging around one of the boat cabin's consoles for the first-aid kit. Scrawny Blip was looking over his computer, clicking away at the keys. Ice was sitting at the boat's helm, steering them full-speed away from the Sinnoh region.
"No," Rift finally said, "We need a new mark. Somewhere far away from Sinnoh. Somewhere we can get a fresh start…"
"What about Unova?" Watts pitched in, "There are a lot of really powerful Pokémon in the Unova region! Pokéstar Studios is there, too! I've always wanted to steal a famous Pokémon!"
"That's actually not a bad idea," Ice agreed, "Unova's far away, too. They probably never heard of the Sinister Six Pokémon Thieves there."
Rift thought about it. Unova had just gotten over an ordeal with the infamous Team Plasma (for the second time); it was unlikely that they were expecting more thieves so soon.
"How long will it take to get to Unova?" he asked.
Watts immediately started cheering, "Yay! Unova! Unova! Unova!"
"I'll start researching a good mark," Blip volunteered.
For the first time that night, Rift smiled, "I have a feeling that this is the start of something grand."