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Blucario rarely made mistakes, but when he did, he had a tendency to mess up big time.

There were dungeons with passages that led outside whenever you reached the final room. Those were usually the most practical, since you didn't have to go back to square one and lose time in the process whenever you were done exploring. Blucario knew this well and he had memorized most of the "practical" dungeons so he could do his job in a relatively safe environment. It had been one of the first things he'd wanted to do when his life as a criminal had begun.

There was no room for mistakes in a life such as his, and still Blucario had managed to walk right into a dungeon with no passage outside whatsoever. He knew by previous experiences that the cavern he was traversing would go deeper and deeper underground until simply reaching a dead-end room. The proper way to fix that would have been to turn back and walk outside as soon as he'd set foot on it, but something was stopping Blucario from doing that.

Or rather, someone.

He'd perceived the aura of the two other Pokémon a few rooms ago. By then, it was already too late to leave the dungeon without risking being caught by them and he hadn't brought any items with him that would facilitate a swift escape. Blucario had no idea who his chasers might be - a Water-type and a Dragon-type, judging by how their auras felt - or why they might be interested in exploring that particular dungeon just as he walked in.

He had his theories, though. He'd been attracting a lot of attention recently and that meant Exploration Teams going after him. Blucario hadn't checked the villain rank the Exploration Team Federation had assigned to him, but he expected it to be fairly high. That meant a generous amount of money to whoever managed to catch him... which wasn't going to happen in the near future, anyway.

However, those two worried him. He'd never been this close to being cornered before.

He could always turn back and fight. The chances that the Exploration Team chasing after him was made by a pair of newbies weren't that low. Many teams used to go after targets that far overpassed their skills in their first missions. That was why the Kecleon brothers had made a fortune selling curative items after all.

Yes, Blucario thought he could risk it. And if not, he could always retort to using a different technique... but he would only do that as a last resort.

He hid behind a particularly large boulder and waited, checking the aura signals that those two emitted. It was unlikely that they could perceive his presence before he attacked. Blucario had had a few unpleasant experiences with Luxrays in the past... but none of those two had an Electric-type aura, which meant Blucario should be safe.

He waited patiently until he heard some steps.

"Do you think he'll be nearby?" a soft voice asked.

"Well, we saw him walk right into this cave, didn't we?" another voice answered. It had a slightly rougher edge to it.

Blucario sharpened his aura perception and tried to get more specific details about the intruders. One of them was definitely a Dragonite. They had a distinct, draconic aura that Blucario had gotten familiarized with in the past. The good thing about Dragonites was that they were extremely weak to Ice Punch, which Blucario was more than willing to take advantage of.

The Dragonite's companion had to be either a Buizel or a Floatzel - Blucario wasn't sure. Whatever they were, that meant they were weak to his Thunder Punch attack.

It seemed Blucario would have to punch his way out of the dungeon. Which was a shame, actually. His Bone Rush always looked so much cooler.

"Isn't it weird that we're chasing a criminal who is a Lucario?" the Dragonite asked then. His voice was getting closer to the room Blucario was hiding in. "As far as I know, they usually aren't the bad guys."

"I don't care about that," his partner said. "We do the job, we deliver him to Magnezone, we get the money. That's all that matters."

Practical man, Blucario thought.

"Where does Magnezone put all the villains we catch for him?" the Dragonite asked then, a hint of curiosity in his voice. "We've never asked."

A curious one, Blucario thought.Easy to work with.

"Weren't you listening? Focus on the job!" said the other.

As they stepped into the room, Blucario finally managed to narrow his options - the guy was definitely a Buizel. He had to be pretty confident of his own strength if he had decided not to evolve. It was time to check if that confidence was justified or just pure recklessness.

He jumped out of his hiding place, his left punch cooling off and getting covered by small icy shards as he aimed it towards the bigger, bulky Dragonite closer to him.

"Watch out!" the Buizel exclaimed.

With a swift propulsion of his twin tails, the Buizel managed to cover the distance separating him from his partner in a matter of seconds. He intercepted Blucario's blow, protecting his partner from the damage. Even though Water-types were particularly resistant to ice, Blucario could see his face contort in pain.

He decided to switch to Thunder Punch in order to finish the Buizel off, but he noticed something out of the corner of his eye - the Dragonite was breathing in and his chest was swelling, which meant a Dragon Pulse was coming. Blucario jumped back and managed to dodge the attack at the very last moment.

He barely had time to react before the Buizel charged against him, his tails cloaked in water. One of the tails stroke Blucario's side causing some pain, but other than that he could escape from the situation unharmed.

These two definitely know what they're doing, Blucario thought. The way their moves appeared to be synced was almost admirable. He'd come across several Exploration Teams in the past and even though many of them were usually made of formidable members, they had a tendency not to be in tune with each other.

There was a lot of potential in those two. Which, unfortunately, meant that Blucario's best option was to flee from the battle now that he still could.

By concentrating his psychic ability to use Agility, he managed to leave the room just as the Dragonite's powerful Dragon Pulse hit the spot he'd been standing at mere seconds before.

"He's running away now?" the Dragon-type asked, disappointed.

"Come on! We need to follow him!" the Buizel urged.

That was exactly what Blucario was counting on.

He ran and ran, trying to get away from the room as fast as he could. The end of the dungeon was close, so the new plan was luring those two there and then... Well, Blucario had never used his aural power for that, but there was a first attempt for everything. He'd been entertaining the idea for a while - it was just a matter of whether it'd work or not.

When the Buizel and the Dragonite entered the final room in the dungeon, they encountered the Lucario sitting on the floor. He had crossed his legs and his eyes were closed, palms on his knees and tail lying gently on the ground.

"He stopped running", the Dragonite noted.

"Of course he did," the Buizel answered. "He's got nowhere to run."

Both of them approached Blucario carefully, as if they could tell he was planning something. Good explorers had good intuition and could usually tell when villains were up to something. A part of Blucario was counting on it - otherwise, things would be far too easy.

"Do you surrender?" the Buizel asked, crossing his arms on his chest.

"I am meditating," Blucario said.

His eyes remained closed even as the two explorers stepped closer. Blucario wondered if they knew he could see them just as well without opening his eyes, if they had been told about his aura control and the extent to which he could use it. Most people knew about his aural vision, but not everyone knew about his aural control. And those who did assumed it mostly involved blasting Aural Spheres.

There was so much more he could do.

"He doesn't look like a threat," the Dragonite mentioned.

Blucario watched as his tense aura slowly eased into a more relaxed approach. It was like watching it turning from black into a clearer shade of grey - and Lucario simply had to reach out and make sure it'd remain that way.

The Buizel was way more wary and his aura didn't allow for such subtle modifications - not yet, anyway. Blucario knew to be patient.

"What are you planning, Lucario?" the Buizel asked.

"Nothing right now. You guys are right. I lost," he answered. It was a good thing his training allowed him to keep a serious, composed expression in spite of such a blatant lie. His poker face had saved him from as many situations as his aura control. "So now I'm just sitting here, weighing my options."

The Buizel frowned.

"Your options? You don't have any options. You have to come with us so Magnezone could put you in jail."

However, Blucario noticed the Dragonite wasn't so sure anymore. Again, he reached for the compassion inside the Dragon-type and made it more intense. Soon, those initial doubts the Dragonite was having seemed to flourish like the back bulb of a Venusaur.

It was time to reinforce those doubts with some additional verbal income.

"I thought maybe we could be friends", Blucario said.

"Friends?" the Buizel asked. One of his ears twitched angrily. "You're a bad guy. We're an Exploration Team. How could we be friends with you?"

"You've committed crimes, remember?" the Dragonite pointed out. His voice didn't sound as certain as he probably wanted it to sound.

"I have made some mistakes. I'm not afraid to admit it," Blucario shook his head almost imperceptibly. "But isn't that a right anybody should have?"

The Buizel scoffed.

"You stole from people. You hurt others." He took a step closer. "That doesn't sound like 'mistakes' to me."

"There are a thousand ways to make mistakes, and very few to make amends," Blucario answered enigmatically.

People usually liked it when he muttered deep nonsense that seemed to be taken out from a movie. And somehow, it seemed to help the Dragonite's hesitation root even deeper.

"Perhaps we should listen to him," the Dragon-type suggested.

"What?" The Buizel turned to him, shocked. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Look at him! He's not a threat anymore. If he's going to jail anyway, maybe we could at least listen to him before he does," the Dragonite said.

Blucario felt the Buizel growing soft for his companion's kindness. It was a perfect opening for him to reach and amplify that sensation, so he extended his aural control to the Water-type and tried to diminish some of the tension that had been building inside him.

It felt like trying to lift a stone with one finger. The Buizel was obviously used to being tense - so much so that said tension had become an intrinsic part of his aura - but Blucario knew how to deal with that. Keeping his control over the two partners was tricky, but there was a reason why he had become such a successful criminal.

He was skilled.

"Huh."

The Buizel scratched the back of his head. A part of him knew something inside him was changing - if Blucario had tried to change his mind through Hypnosis or some trick like that, the Buizel would have probably noticed, but this was completely different. Other Pokémon were usually aware of their minds, but they had no clue about reading auras, not even their own.

The part of that Buizel that was slowly transforming him was completely out of his sight. He turned to his Dragonite partner, still thinking about it, and hesitated.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I guess we could listen to him," he ended up saying.

"He said he wanted to be friends with us," the Dragonite pointed out.

Blucario nodded, eyes still closed.

"Yes. Running like this gets lonely from time to time," he admitted.

There was a sliver of truth in that affirmation, but not in the way any of those two expected. Blucario knew being honest sometimes worked just as fine as lying to someone. When the Buizel abandoned his fighting stance and looked at him in confusion, it was pretty clear that the truth had been a good option to work with.

"Perhaps you should have considered that before you committed all those crimes," the Buizel mumbled. He tried his best to sound strict, but Blucario could easily see through his façade - his aggression was slowly receding, replaced by the compassion and curiosity his partner had infected him with.

"Who knows why I did what I did," Blucario said. Then, remembering something the Dragonite had said earlier, he added, "Lucarios aren't usually the bad guys, you know?"

"So what did you become one?"

"As I said, I made mistakes."

"Maybe we can talk with Magnezone," the Dragonite intervened. "If you explain everything to them, maybe they'll let you walk free. Maybe you could even join our team."

Blucario had to really suppress the urge to smile at that. They'd gone from trying to capture him to wishing he'd walk free in just a few sentences. They'd even offered that he joined their team already.

He opened one eye and, trying to remain impassive, looked at the two explorers. They had approached him slowly and sat on the grounds, just a few meters away from him.

"I'm not sure about that," he admitted, the next part of his plan slowly setting into motion. "They're pretty ruthless, aren't they? Once they lock onto someone, they never let them walk free."

"You're right," the Dragonite conceded, tilting his head. "I've never seen Magnezone letting any criminal walk free."

The Buizel scoffed, slightly unconvinced.

"That's because they're criminals. They shouldn't walk free."

"And how would you know?" Lucario asked, turning to look into his eyes. "Magnezone is the one who tells you they're villains, right? How can you be so sure they're not simply making it up?"

The Buizel hesitated. It was yet another crack that Blucario used to influence him, inflating the part of his aura that longed to believe the outcasts, those who were having trouble and needed help. Having a big heart usually came with being an explorer.

And fortunately, a big heart was easily swayed. The Buizel in front of him was already half under the spell, even if he was unaware of it. He looked down, deep in thought.

"I'm pretty sure they have their reasons for picking the ones they treat as villains."

"Would you be friends with me?" Blucario said instead, forcing that train of thought to stop. It wasn't relevant right now.

"You look too kind to be a villain," the Dragonite said.

"Do I?" Lucario smiled. "Perhaps I am. Perhaps villains can be kind."

"That doesn't make any sense," the Buizel complained. "That..."

Shut up now, Blucario thought to himself, before intensifying the part of the Buizel's aura that just wanted to agree. The Buizel's head swayed between his shoulders, caught off guard.

"What... what is going on?" the Water-type asked.

"He wants to be our friend," the Dragonite reminded him. His ingenuity made things much easier for Blucario, but there were still a few corrections he had to implement so they would become what they wanted them to become.

"Heh. No. I don't want to be your friend. I want you to be my friends," he said. The grin on his face couldn't remain hidden for much longer. He was deeply enjoying that.

"What is the difference?" the Dragonite asked, confused.

Lucario opened his other eye and returned the Dragonite's gaze.

"I want you to be part of my team. How does that sound?"

"Do you have a team?"

"Now I do."

The Buizel was meekly fighting against it, but it was already too late for the Dragonite. However, Blucario made sure to send a wave of pure, deep relaxing aura that washed every single conflictive feeling they might have been storing in those perfectly malleable hearts they had. He even combined it with a Heal Pulse so that they'd feel more comfortable.

The downside of that was that the Buizel and the Dragonite would be fully recovered in case they fought again. However, that was becoming an increasingly unlikely scenario and Blucario knew it.

"Perhaps we can find out why Magnezone is locking so many people up," He suggested. "Perhaps we can fight them."

"And how do we do that?" the Dragonite asked.

"Wait... no..." the Buizel growled, trying to stand up.

Another wave of pleasant aura shook his body to the core and the Water-type dropped to the floor, limp like a plush. His partner was focused on Lucario's words by now, his amplified curiosity so strong that he didn't even notice his partner gently slipping to the ground.

"Well, we force them to come out of their hiding place," Blucario explained. "We commit crimes and we wait for them to appear. How does that sound?"

The Buizel sighed on the ground. He was lying on his back, eyes dreamily staring at the ceiling.

"Isn't that a bit too extreme?" the Dragonite wondered, his eyes momentarily moving to his partner.

"Is it?" Lucario asked, tilting his head. There was a subtle attempt to look genuinely curious.

A gentle touch on the Dragonite's aura was enough to dismiss that feeling of discomfort. A soft, perfectly-aimed poke - and everything fell down like pieces of domino.

"Perhaps not," the Dragonite agreed. "Perhaps there's no other way. They've been doing this for ages, so I'm not sure explaining things will help..."

"I knew you'd see things my way," Blucario grinned. He extended one of his paws towards the two partners, although only one of them could return the gesture. "Friends, then?"

The Dragonite didn't hesitate and reached out for the Lucario's paw. He shook it firmly, seemingly oblivious of the fact he'd been chasing that same Pokémon just a few minutes earlier.

"Friends," the Dragonite agreed with a big smile on his face.

"Friends..." came the soft, elated whisper from the Buizel's lips. His tails kept gently caressing the ground as he stared off into the distance.

Weird reports reached the Magnezone police station a few months later.

Apparently, the Exploration Team that had been chasing Blucario - also known as the Masked Menace - had gone silent. Nobody knew where they were or what they had been doing. Some reports confirmed they had walked into a cavern dungeon chasing the villain, but nobody had seen them walking out, partly because of the Mist that had filled the area hours later.

But as worrying as the news of losing one of the most talented Exploration Teams out there might be, there was something else that kept Magnezone and their colleagues concerned. The Masked Menace seemed to be now more active than ever and his robberies had only gone up in the last few days. Some witnesses had even mentioned he had new allies now. If Blucario had been hard to deal with in the past, Magnezone couldn't imagine how they were supposed to catch him now that he had apparently found team partners.

Fortunately, according to some witnesses, one of those allies was a particularly enthusiastic Water-type. That meant Magnezone had at least one advantage over them.

They found their thoughts going back to the Exploration Team that had disappeared from time to time, though.

Magnezone hoped they were safe.