Back again pretty quick, I am. Last time, we met Blake Bardell, bug type researcher and Alexis Summers, Saffron police officer. We'll be seeing more of them today, but this time, Blake'll look a little different than you all remember from last chapter.

Note: Also, the hair dying thing may be a bit unrealistic here ( or completely unrealistic ). But this is both the pokemon world and a story, so I'm taking artistic license. Also, I've never used hair dye in my life, so yeah. Artistic License, go!

Oh, and one last thing. In case you didn't get it from last chapter, whenever a sentence or something is encased in these: - - , it means that it's part of a person's inner thoughts, but it's not important enough or would ruin the story flow if I put them in italics like normal thought processes are. So yeah. Enjoy...

Chapter 2: A Heist to Remember

Pulling out the Shedinja-looking costume from under his bed, Blake turned to Solaris and nodded to the pokemon, giving the signal that Solaris was to go gather Sniper and some of the other bug types while Blake retreated to the bathroom to get ready.

As Blake entered the bathroom, he closed the door behind him and closed the window curtain as he stood in front of the sink and withdrew a pair of green colored contacts from a drawer under the sink as he removed his glasses and put them into the drawer while slotting the contacts into his eyes. Afterward, he removed an industrial size bottle of black hair dye from the cabinet, and rubbed a generous amount into his hair as it eventually turned to a jet black color, the only brown one could see was if they looked extremely close at the roots of the hair.

Looking into the mirror, one would not see Blake Bardell, but a black haired, green eyed man... who just happened to look a lot like Blake Bardell if you looked too closely and recognized facial features. But at least the disguise wasn't totally paper-thin.

With the disguise preparation complete, Blake exited the bathroom and returned to his bedroom, where Solaris was waiting with Sniper the Scyther along with four other pokemon: Joule the Galvantula, Spy the Ninjask, Crusher the Pinsir, and Ezio the Krickitune. Blake grinned: They would be an excellent team for tonight. Blake grinned as he looked at the six and spoke.

"Alright everyone, we've got a job to do tonight. See, the museum in Pewter is having a special exhibit on the Arceus plates for a few weeks, and lucky for us, while most of them are copies for the sake of education, they've been proudly toting that they've got the authentic Zap Plate on hand. Now, you all know how those things are shrouded in legend and connected to the legendary pokemon Arceus. Then again, anyone with half a brain could figure that out." Blake paused to let out a quick chuckle before continuing. His humor was lame, but it wasn't hard to make the guy laugh.

"Alright, so we go in, get the plate, get out, and sell it for a pretty little penny. Should help us with our cash flow if we sell it to the right guy. Anyway, you all remember what I told you about aliases, right? You know, the fact that since even a mentally deficient Primeape could connect the dots if someone just so happened to figure out that the pokemon belonging to me and Shedninja were named the exact same names? Pretty sure I trained you all to answer to either in my voice." Blake said with a slightly cocky grin on his face.

It hadn't been easy at first, but he was able to manage. He'd of been able to get every one of his pokemon to answer to him if he called them either one of their names, just so it would be that much harder to connect him with Phantom Thief Shedninja. After all, he wanted to make sure he closed every loophole he could, so his fun with larceny didn't have to end so quickly.

Looking at his team of six, Blake called out to his pokemon, making sure they would be ready for the job. "Alright. Solon, Edge, Volt, Shinobi, Crunch, Altair. Get ready to roll." Blake said confidently as he listened to his pokemon buzz and cry out in excitement before Blake returned them all to their pokeballs.

Facing the mirror that was fastened to the wall in his bedroom, Blake went through the motions of putting on his costume, the act so second nature to him at this point that he just let his mind wander, lost in his own thoughts.

He'd been doing the whole thieving thing for about two years or so now, maybe a little less. It was just when he was starting out in the research world. He'd thought he'd have enough money to be able to fund something as great as this compound and be able to keep his pokemon in good shape. Nothing was too good for his friends after all. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until he had found out that researching was less profitable than it seemed, and you'd really have to make it big in the world of research like Rowan or Elm did in order to afford anything super large.

So, with his main goal of paying the bills and keeping his pokemon healthy and fed, Blake set out to try and try to earn some extra cash. At first he tried a lot of stuff: Shopkeeping - He was fired from that after Sniper decided to clean out the entire store of it's supply of sugar and sugary sweets - , Lawncare – Got fired from that one after Solaris decided that "Clean up the remains" meant "Torch the place" -, and even an entertainer at a local bar – Apparently, he got fired from that one for being a crappy singer. Bunch o' jerks. -, but nothing seemed to work for him.

Well, with the bills coming up soon, Blake could only think of one thing to do. After all, he never had the most crystal clear morals around, so why not take up the mantle of a criminal? Besides, he wasn't doing it to inherently be evil, he just wanted to get by... and after a while, he did kinda love the thrill and fun that he had while posing as Phantom Thief Shedninja.

After about a year of evading the police and stealing tons of artifacts - Fossils, Old pottery, whatever fetched a pretty penny really -, Phantom Thief Shedninja became world renowned as a master thief, or at least a really damn good one. Hell, he even liked the name the police gave him: His costume looked like a Shedinja, Shedinja was a phantom, and well... they kinda accidentally made a typo when they printed the first article on him and the name Shedninja stuck. Not that he was complaining, ninja's were pretty cool in his opinion. I mean, one of Johto's Elite Four was one.

Shaking his head to get his mind clear of thoughts, Blake looked in the mirror at himself, his costume fully on. Clad in a grey segmented bodysuit, it looked simple enough, but the real kicker was these cool gadgets he had on the suit.

He wasn't much of an inventor, but he knew a guy in Sinnoh that made these for him. Some old codger that used to be a part of a criminal organization, his name was Marron or Chairon or something -on, he couldn't be bothered to remember. Point was, he met the guy while he was in Sinnoh on business.

Feeble old guy, almost dead at this point. They had a little share and care session where they talked about each others lives... well okay. The old dude rambled and and Blake just listened, old men tend to like to ramble a lot, and who was Blake to deny him that simple pleasure of having someone to talk to? Apparently he was an inventor for Team something or other, there were too many teams around these days. Course, this was when the idea of thievery was just planted into Blake's head, and he asked the old man for a few special devices.

The guy obliged, just happy to be of use and the fact that Blake had listened to his stories, and created a few special gadgets, no questions asked. Poor guy must of just needed some friends: After his team disbanded and he got carted off to jail, he re-evaluated himself in there and SEEMED to turn over a new leaf. At least from what he told Blake. Maybe he should try to remember his name...

Back to the gadgets and away from the boring inner mind explanation however, they really were quite nice. There weren't too many things, but he had enough to get by. Attached to his torso were two detachable motion sensors, shaped in the fashion of a Shedinja's eyes. When tripped by someone walking past them, they would send a signal to Blake via his special visor, which prompted him to hide out until they left or hide out until he could stealthily beat the stuffing out of them. Handy little things, they were. Speaking of his visor, it was currently fastened over his eyes, in the shape of the little halo crescent that floated above a Shedinja's head. Pretty basic stuff: One way sight, hid the eyes... oh, and it had nifty little settings like thermal detection and night vision.

Last but not least, there was one of his favorite tools: A jetpack that, surprise surprise, looked like a Shedinja's wings. Great for quick escapes, and honestly? It just looked cool. The best part of them though? They even had a manual mode where the wings would flap and he'd be able to move through the air without the use of fuel. It was a bit slower than jetpack mode, but it was way better than having his pack crap out on him at a crucial moment.

Checking over his appearance and making sure he had everything, Blake head out the rear door of his compound and activated the manual mode of his jetpack as the wings started to hum and flap, propelling Blake into the air as he flew off towards the Pewter Museum in search of his prize: The legendary Zap Plate.

Finally, she was technically off duty for the night. It had been a long day for Alexis, filled with criminals and paperwork, but now she could finally head home to her little cottage on the outskirts of Celadon City and rest up.

Getting off the bus that took her home, Alexis got the house keys out of her pocket and opened the door to her small one-woman cottage. It was a pretty basic setup, she didn't need anything too fancy. Two bedrooms, living room, bathroom, and kitchen. It was all she really needed, and since she was situated on the outskirts of Celadon - She preferred the peace and quiet rather than the hustle and bustle of the city, but she was still close by so she could go shopping and such.-, there was plenty of open space for her pokemon to roam and play.

Sitting down on the couch, the young officer exhaled as she sunk in and thought back to earlier that day, when the chief assigned her to the Phantom Thief Shedninja case. Apparently this guy was stealing things from under the police's noses without ever being caught for the past two years. She'd heard about him in passing from other officers, and she couldn't believe some of the tall tales she heard. This one time, she had heard an officer exclaim that this thief had the power to turn invisible and fly around like a ghost. She thought that the tales were absolutely absurd, and that when she and Shedninja met face to face, he would go down, and go down hard.

Alexis's thoughts were then interrupted as she heard her poketech go off. Digging it out of her pocket, she looked at the caller ID. "Strange, what does the chief want at this hour? Could it be..." Alexis then flicked open her phone and answered. "Chief. What's the matter?" Alexis said in a serious tone as the Chief broke out into a booming yell on the other end.

" No time for formalities tonight Miss Summers! The station has just received an anonymous tip that Shedninja will be at the Pewter City Museum tonight, and that he's after the Arceus Plates they have! Get over there and be ready to apprehend him! We expect great things tonight, so don't let us down! " Then the chief hurriedly hung up without even a goodbye. He must have been busy, to leave off without his usual cheery goodbyes. Nevertheless, Alexis quickly jammed her phone back into her pocket and got up. Luckily, she didn't even have time to change out of her uniform, so she simply just grabbed her pokeballs and dashed out the door.

"Sora, let's go!" She exclaimed, releasing a pokemon into the open air. It was a large winged bird with dark grey plumage and a red and white comb of feathers on top of it's head. Climbing onto the Staraptor, Alexis spoke. "Alright Sora, we need to get to Pewter City, and step on it!" The large pokemon complied as he set off into the air with a cry, speeding towards Pewter City.

" Shedninja, consider this your last heist."

Smirking, Blake shoved his phone back into his pocket as he stood on top of the Pewter City Museum. He'd just given the police an anonymous tip that Shedninja would be showing up tonight at the museum and was after the Arceus Plate. Why did he just tip off the police? Because it was more fun that way. Was it reckless? Yes. Was it stupid? Yes. Did he happen to care? No. He just liked making fools out of the local law enforcement. It made him laugh.

Peering down from his perch on the roof, Blake spotted two guards at the entrance of the museum down below and silently released his Kriketune. "Altair, use Sing and put those two to sleep, alright?" Blake said as he plugged his ears with his fingers. Altair complied and started to sing a relaxing melody that drifted down towards the guards at the entrance. Watching them yawn and slump down to the ground, Blake returned Ezio to his ball and jumped down from the rooftop, removing a motion sensor from his costume and sticking it to the side of the entrance. That way, if anyone came in, he'd be alerted to it.

Heading into the museum, Blake spotted a few security cameras close by. He didn't want any police monkeys to get ahold of any footage of him, it would ruin his reputation as the Phantom Thief. So, calling out Volt the Galvantula from his pokeball, Blake pointed towards the cameras and spoke. " Volt, you mind? I need some electrical interference. " Volt only let out an excited cry as he fired an Electro Web from his mouth, the web large enough to hit the cameras in the vicinity and short circuit them, leaving a faintly glowing strand of spider silk crackling with electricity strung over the cameras. That was the cleanup crews problem, not Blake's. So, the thief continued on, activating his thermal sensor on the visor to see if there were any laser grids.

Suprise suprise, there were. Not taking a step forward in hesitance to activate the grid, Blake called out his Ninjask, Shinobi. Normally, he'd have the speedy bug maneuver through the laser grid and destroy each laser making node with a Mud-Slap or something, since a Ninjask's eyes were able to see the frequency of light the lasers emitted. But, since he was running low on time since he made that call a while ago, Blake decided to take the boring and easy way and destroy them all at once. "Shinobi. Just use a Bug Buzz at full power this time. No time for the usual theatrics." Blake said, plugging his ears again.

Shinobi seemed to be a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to do his thing, but nonetheless complied and released a high pitched sonic wave, the frequency of it was high enough to crack open the laser-making nodes and blow them up. Blake always wondered why the hell they made everything be able to explode, but eventually he just learned to stop questioning it and go with it, let another researcher figure that out.

Returning Shinobi, Blake quickly made his way to a steel door. Guess the museum really didn't want to let this go. Of course. Steel was no match for Solon and Crush. Releasing the both of them, Blake only pointed at the door and they knew what to do. Solon first fired a Heat Wave towards the steel door, melting it ever so slightly, and making it soft enough for Crush to ram his pincers into the door and open them, ripping the door open and creating a large hole for Blake to enter from. This really was a easy heist... it was like these guys didn't even try to defend this. Then again, he'd been doing this for two years now. Maybe basic stuff like this didn't affect him anymore.

Entering the hole, Blake saw it. The seventeen plates, sixteen fake, one real. Now, he could do this with finesse and have Edge cut open the glass or he could just save time and have Crush smash the glass. Which is exactly what he did. Removing the Zap plate and carefully making sure not to step on the shattered glass, Blake exited the hole and returned his pokemon... Only to narrowly dodge a bolt of lightning, hearing a slow clap from the side.

Looking over, Blake saw her. A lady a little younger and shorter than he was, dressed in the standard police uniform and wearing a dark blue detective's cap, with an Ampharos at her side. A look of surprise quickly transitioned into a gentle smile as Blake spoke up. " Oh, so you must be the new police monkey they put on my tail? How did you happen to get past my little sensor?" Blake asked curiously, his eyes lighting up in whimsical joy behind his visor.

The lady who's name Blake did not yet know spoke up in a cool and commanding voice, her tone cold and harsh. " I had Pharos fry it. By the way, I should return it to you now. Not that you'll be needing it." She said before tossing a fried motion sensor towards Blake, who caught it with ease, noticing the small wisps of smoke coming from it. The lady then continued. "Now, come with me peacefully, or I am going to make this hard for you, Phantom Thief Shedninja."

Blake broke out into a grin and let out a chuckle. "Oh come on now miss, no need to be so formal. Shedninja's fine. I gotta say, you're more competent than the rest of them. Maybe this won't be so boring after all. Now, what's your name missy?" Blake said grinning as the lady quickly retorted.

" My name is none of your concern. Just know that I'm going to be the one that finally brings you to justice, scum." She said harshly. No sooner had she said that however, Shedninja was behind her and tossing something rectangular and red up and down in his hand. Her wallet. How did he get past her so fast? … Wait, her wallet was fastened to her thigh when she was in uniform! That pervert!

Blake only kept the grin on his face as he opened up the wallet and took a look at her driver's license. "Alexis Summers, huh? You're quite a pretty lady. Blue eyes, Brunette... and woah, not a bad bust either! Really glad they started putting women's measurements on these things now. Nice ta meet you." Blake said chuckling as he tossed the wallet back to Alexis, who caught it, her face tinted with a hint of red.

" You... You... Pharos use Thunderbolt now!" She commanded, still somehow managing to keep her cool as her Ampharos fired off another bolt of lightning. Blake unfortunately got hit, even as he tried to dodge, but luckily for him, his Jetpack had a function that allowed it to absorb most of the electricity, he should be fine... until he heard his Jetpack make weird noises... did she short it out? She did, didn't she? That bitch! He liked his jetpack... it would take him forever to fix...

"Crap, this may be a closer call than I thought... Volt, Shinobi, Edge, Altair, Solaris! Let's get the hell out of here. Bug Buzz! " Blake said as he let out the aforementioned pokemon, plugged his ears, and hopped on Solaris's back as the five bugs let out a catastrophic chorus of sound waves, shattering nearby glass and forcing both Alexis and her Ampharos to cover their ears in pain and recoil to the ground. While they were down, Blake took the opportunity to fly off on Solaris's back through the nearby skylight, the glass having been shattered by Bug Buzz.

Recalling the other four pokemon once he was high enough, Blake gave a shout down towards the recovering brunette officer. " Alexis, right? Au Revoir, you were certainly more of a challenge than the rest of them, perhaps we'll meet again! Ta-ta! Oh, and by the way, nice legs! " Blake said, flying off on his Volcarona.

Having gotten up and returned Ampharos to his ball, Alexis cursed under her breath. "Damn it, how could I have let that perverted criminal get away? He's certainly tricker than I expected him to be... but I don't like to lose twice. Shedninja, prepare yourself to be brought to justice!" Alexis ended her small rant with a shout as she let out Sora and flew off towards her home in Celadon, not even bothering to go after the criminal who was now long gone.

Having just arrived back at home, Blake got out of costume and washed out his hair dye, before sitting down on his bed, obviously exhausted by the encounter, letting his pokemon rest in their balls. Never before had he had a close call like that. This Alexis girl was a pretty fierce opponent. In a way, he hated it, having his reputation as the Phantom Thief ruined by that girl. But in a way, he enjoyed the challenge it provided: No longer would the break ins be boring, now he actually had someone that could match him on the opposite side! Breaking out into laughter, Blake grinned as a singular though ran through his head before going to sleep.

" Finally, this is getting more fun. Alexis, I believe you've made yourself a rival. Let the games begin."

And that's chapter 2. I realize the " Blake's pokemon have two nicknames " might get a little confusing to you all at some point, so I'll put a list of all his pokemon and their names up on my profile soon enough. Be sure to leave a review! Feedback always helps. Anyway, till Chapter 3 everyone.