OOC: Below is a Joint post between myself and Supervegeta, as we felt like being awesome.
"Well? What do you think? Wanna give it a go? Don't worry, you won't get hit. I did it the quickest and easiest way to give you an example. If both of us work together, we can do so much different, and probably a lot better." Edward brandishing the fruits of his labor before Cody.
"Welcome to my world."
Obscure movie references flooding Cody's idle mind aside, he was quite…intrigued to say the least. Edward proved to be what Cody had labeled to be: a thief. Though to be fair, Cody saw him as a potential thief leaving the possibility that Edward just admired good taste. Cody had dabbled into crime before, pickpocketing someone on his odyssey to the train station. So, Edward's hobby was not untraversed ground though still unfamiliar. Cody had to debate whether or not it was worth all the trouble. The more he pondered it, the more it seemed worth at least trying. Cody had lived his life on an old proverb: "Don't knock it till you try it." Though he had added a slight modification: "Don't knock it till you try it, permitting it was worth trying in the first place."
Edward's process was interesting and in fact, similar to how Cody would approach the whole ordeal. He had observed several compartments before choosing one with desirable loot. Put on a big show. Walk out with some scars but also the prize. It seemed…fun. Or at least worth trying. But why did Edward want his help? Cody shrugged at his own question. Too much work to think of a plausible theory. His brain was already on the verge of being fried.
"Your hobby is quite different than I had expected" Cody said with a slight smile if only to put Edward at ease a bit. Rubbing his head lightly, he tried to find the words to answer Edward's questions. It was quite difficult to phrase anything in a concise, yet intelligent manner. Josh's stupidity must of have rubbed off on him. With a sigh, Cody simply answered: "I'm in."
Edward clapped his hands together at Cody's response, and began to rub them, barely able to hide his exuberance. "Excellent." He said. Edward was about to go look around for another compartment, but he shot a glance back at Cody, and decided to let him give it a try, seeing as he would be bringing him along anyways. He decided to see how good his most valuable thieving skill really was.
"In terms of pickpocketing alone, I generally have three..." He searched for the correct word. "...guidelines I follow: Observe, Approach, and Contact. They may seem simple, but in the hands of an expert, it could mean the different between full hands and red hands, if you catch my drift. Let's see how you do. Why don't you pick out a compartment you think's got something worthwhile?"
Cody looked around the train cart, trying to find another victim for Edward. A natural observer, having honed the skill from years of people watching, Cody was usually quick to pick up on things, especially tiny details most people ignore. Unfortunately, Edward had taken the best compartment on the cart and nothing came to mind when it came to his observations. Every other cart was bare in comparison to what Edward seemed to desire. Unable to think of anything and observe anything, Cody shrugged and looked around again, hoping for a hint.
"Well I got nothing, but there seems to be a free Pokemon over there," Cody said motioning over to the door leading outside on the far side of the cart.
Indeed, to their fare side sat an Elekid in plain sight. It most likely belonged to a trainer, unless it was a stowaway or something. Either way, the trainer wasn't around, which made it ripe for the taking. A smile came onto Edward's face.
"Correction. You mean there's ourfree Pokemon over there. No trainer means no ownership. Let's get a closer look." The dynamic duo walked over to the Pokemon, trying to not look suspicious to any potential onlookers. Following Edward's newly established rules for engagement, Cody tried his first approach. Slow was his pace, careful was intent, subtle was the entire process. Cody forced Edward to stop when they were about a meter away from the Pokemon as to not startle their victim. It looked depressed or lonely as it waited by the door, unable to open it. Cody chuckled a bit, admiring its noble effort.
"Looks like an Elekid. Didn't that one guy have one?" Cody directed to Edward.
Edward exchanged looks with Cody for a moment as Edward recalled who Cody was referring about. Indeed, Mr. Rich Guy did have an Elekid. Edward wondered if this was his. He shrugged, and moved a little closer to the Pokemon.
"Alright, how should we do this?" Edward said out loud, more asking himself than Cody, seeing as he technically was the 'expert' in this situation. Edward reached for his back pocket to see what he had inside it. The first item he grabbed was the empty bottle of alcohol he had used before in his ruse. No, that wouldn't work. He wanted to steal the Elekid, not harm it. He then looked at the wallet and watch. No way. He wasn't going to use his well-earned prizes, even if it meant getting another prize. Which left...
"Cody. Here." He said, handing Cody a Ragecandybar. "Try to get it to come here with this, and then I'll grab it."
This was not a good idea. They should have laid out a better plan, maybe had a few supplies with them to carry it out. But Edward was feeling lucky, and a tad stupid, so why the hell not?
Cody snatched the bar with little enthusiasm. "If I get shocked and die, I will consider haunting your greedy ass depending on how much effort it takes," Cody sneered. He didn't enjoy Edward's plan as it put too much risk to both parties. Clearly, Edward wasn't thinking straight. A candy bar? Really? How unoriginal. With a sigh, Cody walked up to the Elekid slowly, hoping to lure it with the Ragecandybar. "Come on. Over here. It's free candy. Everyone likes free candy." All I need now is a cheap white van to complete this image, Cody thought to himself.
Edward saw the Pokemon looked up. In his mind, he thought about how this may have single-handedly been the stupidest thing he had ever done. Why was he doing it? He really didn't know. It was a bit exciting, sure, and why not do some stupid, reckless, exciting things when you're young? It was more to turn Cody on to his trade than actual success, actually.
Edward ran at the Pokemon from the side, who was looking at Cody at the moment. He lifted it off of its feet, and began to run. The Pokemon shouted and a few seconds later, shocked Edward. Edward yelped in pain, and let the Pokemon drop from his arms.
"F**K! Cody, grab it!"
"Really?! Damn it, Edward!" Cody leapt into action, surprisingly committed to stealing a Pokemon. It was probably the first time Cody had actually jumped into any sort of ordeal. Running in an awkward fashion to catch up to the fleeing Pokemon and practically paralyzed Edward, Cody stretched his arms ever so slightly and snatched the Elekid from the ground, grabbing it by the hind leg. In hindsight, that itself was a bad idea. Watching Edward transform into burnt toast should of been a lesson itself, but still Cody listened to Edward as he barked orders at him. Lifting the Elekid, the Pokemon retaliated with a torrent of electricity and Cody had expected to be at that point lying on the ground in a fetal position questioning his life's decisions. Instead, nothing. No bolt of energy. No electrotherapy to tend to the slight pain in his neck and upper back. Just a strange tingling his hands, as they were gradually becoming paralyzed.
"Strange. The Pokemon ain't shocking me. Stings a bit I guess. Is it broken?"
Edward looked puzzled as the Pokemon appeared to do no harm to Cody, even if it was clearly trying to shock him. Was the Pokemon out of energy, or was this a gift from lady luck? His puzzled look broke a few moments later as he shouted back at Cody.
"Don't just stand there. Run for it!"
"Um, run where? There is no rush to get out of here," Cody snickered, being too lazy to actually run away from a lack of an owner. Wasn't like there was a reason to hide. The Elekid continued to shock him, producing little more than a numbing sensation in his hands. Cody was perplexed by this fact, but he had a far out guess as to why. Cody just shrugged and tried to calm the tiring Pokemon down. "Hey, you! Stop it. Clearly your electric shocks ain't doing much," Cody yelled at the Pokemon, poking it hoping the minor violence would produce a reaction similar to that of negative reinforcement.
Edward looked back at Cody, still bewildered at the reason why it was not shocking him. Before he could say anything else, though, he heard the sound of the far door moving, about to be opened. Edward saw that Cody was too busy being preoccupied with the Elekid, so he probably didn't hear it. His mind raced, and ultimately came to the conclusion that this was pointless, and just not worth it.
Edward took a step back slowly, and then sprinted away, and entered into one of the other compartments. Inside was the angry girl from before who had black hair with red stripes, as well as a dark-haired, dark-eyed emo-looking kid with a guitar and a few tattoos. Edward looked at the pair that were sitting next to each other, and spoke a moment later.
"Shh...I'm not here." Edward said, putting a finger in front of his mouth as he ducked under seat opposite them, and hid until he was sure the coast was clear. He wondered how Cody would fair, especially if it was Mr. Rich Guy's Elekid.
