THIEF! Chapter 7

Perspective Partner

"STOP! THIEF!" The cries of the furious shopkeeper continued to ring out as Liana chased the Mightyena. But as they both got farther away, the sound began to fade out, until it could no longer be heard.

And still Mightyena ran. If the pokemon noticed Liana following it, the wolf gave no notice. Maybe it was too preoccupied to notice or care. Or perhaps she was simply running too far behind to be detected. As she thought of possibilities, Liana noticed that Mightyena was running towards a worse part of the city. A very poor part. What could be the significance of that, she wondered? She had to stop her musings, however, as Mightyena slowed to a halt in front of a young girl.

She was short, and scruffy looking. Her shirt, while very cool looking with a red dragon on black, was obviously too big for her. And her jeans were ripped at the knees. But Liana only vaguely noticed that. What really caught her attention was the girl's face. Framed by a lock of dark blue hair on each side, that girl had eyes just as blue. They were deep and piercing and serious, almost too serious for a girl this age. And they were staring right at her.

"You're the first one who followed Mightyena this far. You must really have wanted this back. Why?" She held up a meat submarine sandwich, wrapped in paper. The impression of the wolf's jaws could clearly be seen on it.

"I don't want to take your lunch. I want to talk. Is that ok with you?" The girl nodded, and they both sat down on a low, crumbling wall. "You might say that we are, sort of, colleagues." Liana delivered with a smile.

The girl looked unimpressed. "You must be that prankster thief, then. No pampered little girls would be stealing for real."

Why did everyone call her that? "I AM NOT A PRANKSTER!" Liana screamed. She was about to go on, when she caught herself. She had as good as confirmed it. It was one thing to hint that you were a thief, but quite another to say which one you were. And Liana couldn't be sure if this girl could be trusted to keep her mouth shut. Now she was really frustrated. "Hmph. Why should I care what you think? Stealing bread, you're small time."

The girl's eyes flashed. "Small time, am I? Then what are these?" And she held up two very familiar looking pokeballs.

Liana was shocked and outraged. Even though she had been watching the girl closely, she hadn't noticed the loss of her pokeballs at all. "My pokemon! Give them back!" She lunged at the girl, and longer arms would have prevailed, except that her attack was anticipated. The girl scooted out of reach.

"I'll give them back if you tell me why you started stealing. I can't for the life of me think why you'd steal if you didn't have to."

"I do have to. Without stealing, I can't get my rush. I'm addicted to it."

"Hah!" The girl contemptuously threw Liana's pokemon back. "You spoiled rich girls are all the same. What a stupid reason."

"Tell me why you steal then, if your reason is so much better," Liana challenged still stinging from all the insults.

"I steal," the girl retorted, "because I really do have to. I need to do this, so I can eat. So I can have shoes. So I can take care of my pokemon. It's not a game for me; it's reality."

Liana didn't know what to say. She had never thought of that. And now she felt very ashamed of how spitefully she had acted towards this girl. Years younger than her, and she was already more mature than Liana was, and had a much more accurate view of the world. "What's your name?"

"Dragon," the girl responded proudly.

"Dragon? Really?" Liana was bit incredulous on that one.

Dragon smiled. "Street name. See the shirt? Not like I'm gonna tell you my real one."

"Fair enough. Hey, why'd you steal the sub when you could've bought it? I mean, you obviously have the skills to rip off a couple of wallets."

"I twisted my ankle escaping from a botched heist a couple of days ago. Occupational hazard. Then I ran out of cash. I don't want to risk stealing money until I can run again."

"You stole from me," Liana pointed out.

"Bah!" Dragon shrugged the comment off. "Finger practice, only." And then, she took the sub, gave the meat to Mightyena, and started chewing on the bread herself.

"Is that all you're having?" Liana asked, feeling sorry for the girl.

"Nah. Mightyena's job was more of distraction. Espy's should get back with the real haul any minute now."

"Espy?" Liana needn't have asked, for an Espeon walked up to Dragon just then. And behind it was a bag full of food, levitating! "Espeon must be using Confusion to carry the bag," she thought to herself. Aloud, she said "That is pretty clever."

"Thanks. Here, catch!" Dragon lobbed a soda to Liana, who caught it one-handed. Then she tapped on the lid to make sure it wouldn't explode with fizz when she opened it.

"So, do you live around here?"

Dragon gave her a strange look. "Yeah, right there, in fact." She pointed to an unstable looking building, whose entrance was boarded up. "There's a hole in the boards that I'm small enough to fit through. It's got a bed, and some furniture. Pretty nice actually, considering."

This was too much for Liana. She couldn't bear that this girl would have to live in such a place, while she was living in comparable luxury. Something must be done! "Dragon, do you have any particular emotional attachments to that place?"

"Not really. Why?"

"Come with me." Liana led Dragon through the city until they were in front of Bobby's house. She knocked on the front door, and Bobby answered. "Bobby, this is Dragon. I was wondering, could you put her up at your place?"