Josh was glad he ended up getting transferred to Mauville City instead of Rustboro City; as nice as the place was, it was just far too remote from Fortree and the plains near Mauville, which were his favorite two Ranging grounds. He and Matt had been hired by a high-end jewelry store that had suffered from a recent break-in to do some security testing. This job was far from Ranging, though; this was more an Officer's, or even a criminal's domain. That wasn't going to stop him, though; he had a Pokémon team that was quite good at defeating security. With Winky's incredible agility and stealth, plus Blitz's X-Ray vision, they would easily be able to defeat many common security systems.

The business had made some significant upgrades in the wake of the attack, where the thieves had made off with several million PD worth of diamond rings, gold bracelets, and other merchandise. Once he had arrived at the back alley leading to the employee entrance, Josh dismounted his Luxray, sent out his Greninja, and pulled up the text message he had received from the store's general manager earlier in the week, the full moon reflecting more glare from his phone screen than he would like. It contained the password for the back entrance, whose alarm had been disabled once the security test was announced.

"Alright, Blitz, I want you to use your X-Ray vision to find where all the lasers are, and show us where not to step!" Josh instructed his electric Pokémon. The Luxray responded with a deep purr before his eyes started gleaming whites and yellows. "Winky, you follow Blitz's instructions and help us get in, get the goods, then...not get out. Put the goods back and show them the holes in their security." A bright flashlight caught Josh's attention. "Oh, there you are Matt. Didn't mean to spook you. I hope you brought some Pokémon appropriate for the job!"

Matt huffed, he could have hurt Josh from getting him startled like that. Letting it go however, he got off of Ace. "Yeah, I brought Gauntlet and Demuu." His scraggy and poochyena. "And obviously Ace." Going to walk up next to him, he crossed his arms. "So, got an idea how we're getting in?" He asked, his heel digging into the ground.

This mission felt a little uncomfortable, even if it was for a good cause. "Feels weird." He said to hmself, eyeballing some of the nearby businesses. Before he caught on this wasn't the building he thought it was... on good. Now he felt a lot less awkward about this.

"Don't luxray's got x-ray vision or something? Got a friend who has one and swore he told me that once."

Josh Devlin

Josh looked forward to see Ace, the Absol. He was certainly appropriate for the job; could use those claws to pick or break break a lot of locks. "All good choices." When asked how they were getting in, Josh smiled. "The owner gave me the code to the back door. That way we don't have to cause any real damage while we're here. After all, we're trying to test the inner security. Breaking into the building would be simple; just destroy a window." With that, he entered the password; with a click, the back door was unlocked.

"You're right; this does feel weird. You would think they would hire a reformed criminal or something for this. Someone with actual burglary experience. With how active Team Rocket's been, you wouldn't think finding someone to do this would be hard." Blitz's gaze scanned back and forth. "Yes, Luxray have limited X-Ray vision. This is actually one of the things I wanted to test. They can detect certain frequencies of light outside the visible spectrum. But not all of them."

Blitz detected a web of lasers surrounding the entrance, the cash registers, and around a stairwell. The Luxray shook his head; while Josh didn't understand what the electric-type was saying directly, he got the gist of it. "They're well positioned, at least; a human isn't getting in there without tripping them. But a small Pokémon could. Could you have your Poochyena go in there and try to find the eyes of some of these lasers for me? If it's a common model, Saber should be able to disable them with his Thunder Wave without permanently ruining them. But he can't get inside on his own; the lasers are too dense."

Matt's eyes glazed over as Josh went on. He was listening, but this was just his default stare as he took in information. As he asked for Demuuu, he looked down at the pup. "You ready for your first mission, girl?" He asked the pup, who nodded her head fiercely.

"She's ready." He motioned her forward, "Make sure to listen to Blitz, he'll be helping you out in there." Demuu nodded, going to start heading inside. With the assistance from Blitz, she managed to wiggle herself through all the laser lights. Grinning to herself as she managed to wiggle herself through. Such a smug little smirk on her muzzle!

Lookin garound, she was supposed to find something, right? Tilting her head, she wandered around rather comically trying to find just exactly what she needed- until she spotted the glint of the laser eyes. Growling at it, she soon went to where the lasers began, barking to alert Blitz and point her head to where the eye was.

"Hope she's okay in there..."

Josh Devlin

Demuu and Blitz worked together to locate the eyes of the security lasers crisscrossing near the back entrance to the jewelry store. Unfortunately, the electric cat had no way to disable them without shorting out the entire security system and doing actual damage to the store's equipment. He did have a backup plan, though. "Alright, Saber, your turn," he said, releasing his Manectric near the door. "See where Blitz and Demuu are pointing? I want you to fire a minimum-power THUNDER WAVE at every spot they show you."

The three of them, working together, were able to short out the beacons for almost all the security lasers surrounding the door. There were a few beacons behind corners Saber could not see. They would just have to avoid those. "Great job everyone! Blitz, can you show Saber where the gaps in the lasers are?" After a few purrs and barks, Saber squeezed against the side of the open door frame, successfully able to enter the building. With that, the two shorted out the remaining beacons. A few more barks and purrs later, Josh had the signal he needed. "Doorway's clear. Those lasers won't stay disabled forever, I imagine."

Matt was impressed with Demuu. Once they doors were cleared, he went over and petted her head. "Good job." He whispered, handing a treat he kept in his pocket. Straightening back up, he waved Gauntlet inside. The scraggy scurried inside, looking around and bouncing. Excited to get this work done!

"Okay, where do we need to look out for other security stuff? Gauntlet here is... very good at grabbing things they aren't supposed to, so they'll be good at getting the things to put back. Just need to know where to go."

Josh Devlin

Matt followed, listening to everything Josh had to say about it. That was until the cops spooked him. Gauntlet soon zoomed to his side, looking ready to fight! Demuu came up to the other side, her fur on end, growling at them. The tension in the air was high and Matt did not like it.

Once they were cleared, Matt and his pokemon relaxed. Arms crossing over his chest and looking annoyed. "Jeez... didn't want the real thieving experience." Exhaling, he nudged his pokemon to settle, and they relaxed near his legs.

"Electric pokemon is going to take out this entire place... also this is sorta dumb." He pointed to all the computers connected in once spot. "One outage and the entire mall goes down." Looks like Matt had the same ideas as Josh.

Josh Devlin

The strip mall was built quite some time ago, and it was readily apparent that its security system hadn't been updated in years. "Ranger Devlin or Leader Devlin, but I go by Josh." he flashed his ID and badge to identify himself. "This is Rookie Ranger Matt." A deep sigh followed. "This has been an incredibly productive test. Almost too productive. We're not even professionals and we broke in without too much trouble by just having the keypad code. I was originally going to give this list to just the one store, but the issues go well beyond. I think you're gonna need to get ahold of the strip mall's landlord and strongly recommend they overhaul the whole place; I wouldn't be surprised if your security system was older than I am. Gonna borrow your clipboard for a bit; this might take me a while."

He snatched up a nearby clipboard and pad of paper, detailing all the flaws he found in the security system. "Matt, it's not a weakness to electric Pokémon specifically," the more tenured Ranger rebutted. "The eyes were well hidden from view, what with being small and out of sight. Many of them were within the wall panels, too. There's no way you would reasonably see them without X-ray vision, even if you knew what to look for. The problem is the entire security system could be single-handedly defeated by a Luxray armed with Thunder Wave." He scribbled down other notes, including the presence of the master security switch that looked like it was installed in the previous century.

"Your system actually is mostly sound, but it's just old and needs to be replaced. Luxray's X-Ray vision is limited to a narrow range of two wavelengths, one in the UV and one in the infrared bands." Of course Josh would be practically a walking encyclopedia on his Gym-regular electric Pokémon. "I highly recommend updating to a system that uses a wavelength that Luxray can't detect. Like I said, a single Pokémon should not be able to defeat security."

Josh then gestured toward the master panel. "Even though this is the most secure room in the building, it's just too big of a risk. I would also recommend instead of having a master override panel, put the system on a timer and have it be run by a computer. Split it on a per-store basis, enable it an hour after close, and disable it an hour before open." He turned back to Matt and whispered, "Arceus are we gonna collect a hell of a paycheck from them, with all the problems we found."

Matt frowned, but he guessed Josh had a point. Wrinkling his nose in frustration, he let it go. No reason to get angry over being corrected. Obviously Josh knew more about this, even if he felt off about it. Or maybe he was used to the idea of people owning a Luxray? Since Nico's uncle also had one, so he grew up around seeing them.

"Don't really like this job, feels wrong, but you right the money is gonna be dope. Can afford to hopefully get that ring I want too for Nico.."

Oh, oh did he just let Josh in on a little surprise he was planning? He sure did. Since he had to ask Josh about something later.

"When we get back, I got something to ask you, bro." Winking at him, he then returned Gauntlet to his ball, going to pick up Demuu. "Well if that's all we got here, let's go get this turned in, Josh."

Josh Devlin