Fun with Foxes

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It was a cool night; the crisp, refreshing air was just what Zack needed right now. Earlier that day he had sneaked into Grassveil's Guild to take a peek at their outlaw board. Though he hadn't stolen a mission from the board, he had made a mental note of one of them; a Zorua that was said to reside in Shadowhue Forest. This Zorua was a thief like him, however there was one key difference: she used her abilities to steal from ordinary, helpless folk. In Zack's opinion, it was a rather large waste of such amazing skills. After all, Zorua and Zoroark were famed for their illusion ability. They made the perfect thieves, so why waste such natural talent?

What he did glean from this was that he needed to be just as tricky if he were going to succeed tonight.

Zack chuckled to himself as the Zorua dropped her illusion and dashed off into another part of the forest's undergrowth. He would need to learn how to combat such illusionary powers in the future, but they just fascinated him! Remaining safely in his treetop position, Zack began to go over the events that had transpired, realising that he still hadn't successfully stolen from the Zorua.
Eh, she'll know i'm coming now. I might as well try chasing up some of those rumours instead, he frowned before glancing back to where Mirage had dashed off.
Wait. Maybe she knows something about them.., he thought, hopping down from the tree and running after her.

The fox came to a halt as she ducked under a bush, hearing something that could have been the rescue team. All was silent as she waited, the waiting game seemed to have found its way into her life once more. She could do this, she always won at the waiting game. She stayed still, hidden by the bush's leaves that draped over her like a puffy blanket. She smiled in success as the sound of movement occurred after a few moments and the Roselia from earlier stepped out and moved on. She had won, as expected. They would probably give up, for now. They would probably search around the forest for a bit until nightfall, then camp out. She would have to wait even longer.

Upon spotting the Roselia, Zack had quickly ducked back behind the tree, listening out for it's movements as he waited for it to move on. When it did, the young Sentret cautiously moved from his hidden position, calling out in hushed whispers for the Zorua.
"Mirage? That was your name right?" he asked quietly, eyes still watching where the Roselia had left, in case it heard him and decided to come back.

"No, I'm Fredrick," Mirage spoke sarcastically, though good humor was in her tone. The game with the rescue team had placed her back into a good mood, since she was able to mess with them so easily like that. The stupidity or obliviousness of others often amused her, she knew better than to think the rescue team was completely stupid, but everyone has their moments when their brains were just absent for a moment. That was around the time where she would strike, everyone has those moments, she had not met a single pokemon who had never screwed up once because they hadn't been thinking, nor had she planned on meeting one.

"Fredrick isn't even a female name!" protested Zack with a chuckle as he ducked under the bush just in case the exploration team decided to come back whilst he was just standing there.
"Seeing as I can't steal from you now, I need a new mark. I heard some rumours about another outlaw in this area and I wondered if you had any other information that could help me judge whether the rumours have any truth to them," he blinked, curling his ringed tail around him so that it wouldn't stick out of the bush's branches, "If you want, you could even join me on a heist. I'd love to see that illusion ability of yours in action again."

Mirage was flattered by the compliment, and spoke honestly, "I don't know of any rumors about any outlaws in this area, but I do know of some perverted Ludicolo that's hunting me for Arceus knows what purpose," Mirage felt a shiver run through her at what the ludicolo would make her do or would do to her. He was certainly stronger than her without a doubt, and the illusion ability usually isn't able to deceive eyes of who had witnessed the set up due to common sense. One would have to be a complete moron to not be able to put two and two together...

Zack blinked at the mention of the perverted Ludicolo, remembering the Guild mission in which he had first discovered the Zorua's existence. It did seem rather creepy...
"A creeper like that is fair game, I guess," he replied with a small smile, "Any idea where we could find him at this time of night?" he asked with a small flick of his ringed tail.

"He's usually wondering around and calling out my name like i'm some lost poochyena. As if I'll go right to him!" Mirage was obviously bothered by the Ludicolo's presence in the woods at night. Especially when she was too disgusted with how he acted to mess with him. The Zorua sat up, causing the bush to rustle, "The rescue team probably gave up by now, it's too late and they'll probably have suspected that we left the forest by now."

"How about we steal from him, and then scare the tail off of him?" Zack suggested, noticing how bothered the Zorua seemed to be by the Ludicolo, even when just discussing him. The young sentret poked his head out of the undergrowth to check if the coast was clear, standing on his ringed tail as he did so.
"I think you're right, though we should probably steer clear of that general area for the time being, just in case."

"Sounds like fun," Mirage smirked mischievously, "He has a certain path each night, around the time when the moon is directly above us is when he'll be reaching a nearby brook, he usually stops there for a rest sometimes as well." Mirage leaped gracefully out of the bush, walking a few steps in the direction of the brook she remembered, before looking over her shoulder and awaiting for the sentret to come along. She had dismissed the earlier encounter with the sentret as getting off on the wrong foot, as they say, and decided to join him in a game with the ludicolo.

The Sentret nodded with a small smirk at the information before lowering himself back onto his paws and chasing after the Zorua. Indeed, this did sound like fun.
"So should we plan how we're gonna do this?" asked Zack as they drew nearer to the brook.

"Well duh, though I usually come up with things on the fly," the Zorua spoke, "Ludicolo should actually be a pretty strong pokemon. The only reason he's having weaker teams go after me I think is because he may be afraid of hurting me, either that or he is an extremely lazy a**."
The Zorua spoke as she walked, keeping her voice to a whisper that was silenced by the whisper of the trees to all but Zack since he was directly next to her. The Zorua felt somewhat more relaxed now that she didn't feel like she was watched and the night was no longer completely silent and more frightening than usual.
"Got any ideas?"

"Not at the moment," he admitted, "Though once we get eyes on the Ludicolo and the brook it might be a different story. Reconnaissance I suppose you could call it."
As the continued walking towards the brook, the Sentret made sure that his pawsteps were quiet if not entirely silent. As they drew nearer to the brook Zack began to hear the soft trickling sound of the brook's running water and promptly -but quietly- climbed the nearest tree so that he could get a good view of the surrounding area.

The ludicolo was nowhere to be seen, instead another pokemon stood where Mirage had thought the ludicolo to be. The pokemon took a drink from the stream and began calling Mirage's name. The zorua had guessed that maybe the ludicolo had to be somewhere else, and so hired another pokemon to search for her. She was a bit upset that she was unable to torture the ludicolo itself, but sending a message through a henchmen might work just as well. "So, do you think messing with that might send a message?" mirage did not know just what that pokemon was yet though, leaving for the sentret to decide.

This dice is not existing.

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea," blinked Zack in a hushed whisper, the Sentret remaining wary in the face of this new development. He flicked his ringed tail as he glanced around the area, "We don't know if this Pokemon is actually affiliated with the Ludicolo or whether they're some sort of exploration team. I don't think it would be wise to jump in only to accidentally 'mess' with a guild member," he frowned, though his curiosity was getting the better of him.
"I could always go down there to 'get a drink' and strike up a conversation with them," suggested Zack, "Or you could, using your Illusion ability to disguise yourself. We could find out who they are and act accordingly."