16.

Old Birds, Same Tricks

Lucca couldn't help but wonder—getting into character, trying to stop herself from scratching her head because the wig was killing her—how long ago since her last job?

A year before she met Friede? Or ten years before Liko was born?

No, it had been when she had crashed into Alex running away from a couple of security guards, itching to ask her questions, and the young man, not understanding the situation, helped her hide. A friendship was born out of that simple act of stupid kindness, turned into love as the months turned to years, to marriage, to a different kind of life.


Lucca started young; a talent without equal where it mattered, her mother would tell her.

That was Lucca, the girl with talent and sticky fingers, that Lucca.


Her mother never put her in any real danger.

At least not at first.

The jobs were simple, easy. Here and gone.

Lucca didn't see anything wrong in stealing from their rich neighbors and the complete unknowns. It was fun, daring, so easy a kid could do it. But children grow up, and so did Lucca, who began to see the wrong all over the place, watching the anger, the regret, the anguish.

What's a thief to do with all this horde of gold?


Meeting Alex had changed Lucca.

It wasn't about the thrill anymore, it was about love, and the two of them fell hard for each other. Her mother didn't like it. Lucca didn't care. They were young and in love, and her mother, screaming, told her she was wasting it all for some nobody.

Lucca had changed; her mother didn't want to.


Lucca became a schoolteacher, her talent put to good use to teach the younger generation. Alex became a painter. Her mother got older, life got harder, but she let her daughter be happy. Her granddaughter the apple of her eye, as it were.

And Liko…Liko looked so much like her grandmother that Lucca is glad that her daughter took after her father instead of a thief like her mother.


A girl in a uniform.

That's it.

It doesn't tell Lucca anything but from what she's gathered by playing the bystander tourist that's all Friede and his crew needed to leave for Pewter City. Lucca would have followed if she didn't think it was too obvious.

Her daughter wasn't an idiot.

Liko was a smart kid, indecisive, true, but…Liko wasn't Lucca.

The poor girl was probably in a terrible panic, scared half to death, attacked for no reason at all, barely escaped with her life and that stupid pendant…and oh, Arceus…why did…why did…

…no.

Lucca needed to focus.


There's a Champion staying in the city, a girl from Kalos, mighty interested in a wild Beedrill wandering in Viridian Forest.

A strange girl from what Lucca hears of the gossip around her. Came for a charity race, stayed for a bee. Probably made sense to that girl, Lucca figured. Champions were a strange bunch.

But a Champion nearby meant that she had been told about the attack on Indigo Academy. They would have told the girl about Lucca's missing daughter, and there's a chance, a small chance because Friede, out of options, would ask for help too, unlike Lucca who was all going at it alone.

The Brave Asagi is gone, and the Champion remains.


Lucca decides to buy some water in the local mart, staying a while to hear a rather interesting conversation between a pair of locals.

"You heard about that girl, right?"

"What girl?"

"That girl that tried to fight Beedrill! Joey was talking about it nonstop."

"Did he tell that weird girl about it?"

"Yep! Kinda weird, though…asking us to tell her about that Beedrill, like she's a ranger or something."

"Maybe she is."

"What kind of ranger wears dresses?"

"Undercover rangers, duh."

"Uh…"

"Anyway, forget that. Are you thinking of going to Johto for the Bug Catching Contest?"

"Not this year."

"Too bad."

"That girl probably left for the contest…saw her leaving the hotel with a friend of hers."

"She didn't look the type but maybe she thinks she'll have better luck catching smaller bugs."

"Can't say I blame her. Joey did say that Beedrill was pretty scary."

"Tell me about it…Joey wouldn't shut up about it!"

Lucca almost spills her drink as she pays, thanks the cashier with a cough and smile, and steps out to get some fresh air.

Liko wasn't in Kanto anymore.