Shadow Thief

Official artwork of Shadow Thief

Shadow Thief, also known as the self-entitled "Brilliant Thief", is a secondary character that debuts in Plagued Fear. Despite being mostly a secondary character, he antagonizes the protagonists quite often, which usually leads to complications and deviations of the main objective. He is voiced by Alice.

## Appearance

Shadow Thief is an impish-looking creature, confirmed by the creator to be an imp. He has gray skin, with completely white eyes and sharp teeth. His clothing consists only of different shades of gray. He uses a large hat, a bandana that leaves only his eyes showing, a white shirt with light gray stripes, slightly darker pants, a ragged dark gray cape, which ties around his neck, gloves about the same color as his pants, and shiny shoes about the same color as the cape.

## Personality

Being a thief, and having given himself the title of "Brilliant Thief", gives Shadow Thief away as self-entitled. He is also very pesky and troublesome, usually creating unnecessary trouble for others. His most apparent personality however, is his massive greed and desire to steal things for money. He will do anything to get his hands on something valuable so he can sell for money. He gets very upset if the person he robbed follows him, but tends to continue running away. If persisting for a prolonged period of time, Shadow Thief becomes enraged enough to engage the pursuer in a fight, returning the stolen items if he loses the fight. He also speaks in a scottish accent, but it is unknown if he is actually scottish, or if he speaks like that just because he feels like it.

## Powers and Abilities

Shadow Thief proves to be quite strong physically in his debut in Plagued Fear, as he is able to fight against a team of four all by his lonesome and still give them quite the trouble. However, in the follow-up game, Metal Massacre, he doesn't seem as strong, as he is easily taken down by a team of two.

Besides his strength, Shadow Thief seems to be able to be a master of trickery. He is able to go invisible, and can remain like so for an unknown period of time (though it is implied he can remain like that for as long as he wants). He can also make weaker copies of himself that act like him. However, this one takes away energy from him, and don't last for too long. Eventually, the copies vanish and he is left on his own once more. He also seems to carry around some smoke bombs, but doesn't seem to know the proper way of using them, as the only time he brings one up, he accidentally throws it too far to affect the party members (although it still handicaps the player by covering up their HUD).

Rarely brought up is the fact that he can create living dolls. This is shown in the fifth level of Plagued Fear, where he creates various dolls shaped like Deeman to attack the party members, and at the end of the first level of Metal Massacre, where he makes a huge cardboard version of Cheatso to attack the real one.

## Faults and Weaknesses

Shadow Thief is completely prone to being angered if he steals someone, and that person pursues him in an attempt to get their stolen item back. Eventually, he gets angry enough to fight back, and if he is defeated, he will reluctantly return the item.

Despite being known as Shadow Thief, he is terrible at hiding. He challenges Cheatso and his friends to a Hide-and-Seek to see if they are worthy of getting the Jewel back from him, yet they very easily encounter him everytime.

His aim with his smoke bombs is not the best, since the only time he attempts to use one, he misses the target entirely. However, that still works out in his favor, as the smoke ends up covering the player's HUD during the fight.

Despite being able to clone himself, the duration of the clones is very limited, as in just a few turns, he runs out of energy and all the clones disappear.

## In-Game

### Plagued Fear

Shadow Thief debuts in the second game of the Cheatso Saga, Plagued Fear, as a minor antagonist.

He's first met in Roopin's lab, disguised as Roopin himself. After the protagonists return from the lava caverns, they mistake him for the real Roopin and give him the Jewel of Darkness. After the real Roopin arrives, he reveals his true self, taunts the protagonists and flees while turning invisible. Roopin takes some time to track him down while the protagonists go save Ashlyn from the Plague.

Roopin later finds Shadow Thief in Pinewood Forest, and the protagonists follow him there. They chase him throughout the whole forest, as he tries to fend them off in various ways, including creating living dolls to attack them, challenging them to a game of Hide-And-Seek, and even battling against them, all of which fails. After his loss, he gives up the Jewel of Darkness and leaves the group.

He also appears during Narrull's Quest, running away from Deeman after having seemingly stolen something from him. Narrull and Deeman chase the thief through the nearby mountain, where he hires a biker to take the duo out, to no avail. He also steals Sasha's backpack at the top and flees from the group through the mountain's interior.

Back on ground level, he's caught up by the group again and fights them after having no other options. He loses and is forced to return everything he stole from each of the three. As he's leaving, he questions Deeman why he wanted the medallion if it didn't even belong to him, indirectly making him a hypocrite, but also revealing that Deeman lied to the group in order to get their aid. Shadow Thief brushes it off, not wanting to hear an answer, and enters Roopin's lab, where he is met in the main story.

### Metal Massacre

Shadow Thief returns in the sequel and last entry of Cheatso Saga, Metal Massacre.

This time, he's encountered as early as the first level, searching Cheatso's unconscious body looking for valuables. After Cheatso awakens, the thief explains the situation of the city to him, about how Andrew invaded with a bunch of robots and turned humans into soulless machines. He claims that he needs to make some money so he can leave the city, and plans to do it by stealing. He warns Cheatso to be careful and runs off.

He is met again shortly after, warning Cheatso that the path leading out of the graveyard is blocked and that they need some kind of artifact. He sells Cheatso some ropes so that he can explore the tombs to look for it, but does no more than that. He later returns to the main area of the graveyard after he hears some noise coming from the main tomb, and descends to check. There, he sees a strange hexagram that is reacting to something Cheatso is carrying. But before they can do anything, they are attacked by Sand Spectre, who is unhappy with how Cheatso violated the tombs. Shadow Thief helps Cheatso out throughout the battle if the latter pays him some money, thus taking some weight off his shoulders. After the victory, Cheatso uses the hexagram to create the artifact, which Shadow Thief promptly steals, claiming he will sell it after he escapes, before running off.

He's later seen before leaving the graveyard, having built a wooden imitation of Cheatso and intends to kill him with it, which he fails miserably. After being humiliated, he escapes from the graveyard.

As Cheatso and Blaze walk through the city, he's seen trying to find a way out, being completely lost due to the destruction. He briefly sees the duo, but looks over, before walking off, eventually realizing who it really was the person he saw and going back. He gets angry, claiming that Cheatso is still following him, to which the ghost denies. After he says he has more important things to do, Blaze misinterprets what he said as him claiming that she is not important, to which she starts getting frustrated. Shadow Thief notices an opportunity and demeans Blaze, completely angering both her and Cheatso, then proceeds to face them in a fight, which he loses. He says he got his money and that he should be getting out of there, asking that the duo doesn't follow him again, and leaves.

However, he's seen once again in one of the stores of the mall. He says that he realized he needs a bit more money before he gets out of the city, and proceeds to sell some equipment to the duo, this time saying that he doesn't mean anything harmful to them.

He's only encountered again near the end of the game. As the protagonists are surrounded by a robot ambush in Andrew's base, he butts in, destroying some of the robots and allowing the group to proceed while he distracts the robots. He also appears in the final scene, watching Andrew return everyone's life force back to where they belong, though he doesn't say anything during it.

### Theft of Power

Shadow Thief returns once more during Theft of Power. This time, he's a playable protagonist.

He is first encountered in the Sinister Slums. After Plague Doctor and Paranoia kill many of the thieves in the place, Shadow Thief is alerted by one of them and goes to confront the duo, becoming surprised in the process after he finds out who they are. He fights them, but loses, right afterwards finding out they had their power stolen. Plague Doctor tries to get Shadow Thief to join them, to which he declines and demands they leave the slums. However, after he is warned of an incoming police assault, he changes his mind and agrees to join Plague Doctor with the condition that they help him fend off the assault. They are successful, and Shadow Thief keeps his word, following them wherever they must go.

After meeting Isaac in his mansion, he explains about his Power Orbs, a magical artifact that allows someone to steal another person's power to keep it secured or to power themselves up, something that Shadow Thief takes an interest on. They later meet Codename: Bow Alpha, but lose the fight.

Shadow Thief continues following the group throughout the outskirts, the observation tower, and even the depths of Osoroshi Ocean, until they arrive at the Sombershine Refinery, where Codename: Bow Alpha is located. They fight her and accomplice, Lightning Fuse, and finally come out victories. However, in the last moment, Shadow Thief once again gives in to his thief instincts and steals Isaac's orb, proceeds to steal everyone's power, and transforms into a big and powerful version of himself, which he refers to as Shadow Thief NEO.

Using this newfound power, he easily kills the protagonists, but they are revived and blessed by Seraphel, which puts them on equal footing with Shadow Thief. He fights them again, sometimes having to fight Codename: Bow Alpha and Lighting Fuse too, but ends up ultimately losing the battle, after which he is forced to give up everyone's power. Right before Isaac can punish him, he tricks everyone into looking away, where he takes the time to turn invisible and escape. Outside of the refinery, he reflects on his actions, about how he could've been good friends with them if he didn't act greedy. He tries to brush it off with his massive self-confidence, claiming that he is still the best thief in existence and laughing, before that excitement fades out and he becomes remorseful.

## Trivia

* According to the creator, Shadow Thief has been based on the character Popple, who appears in the Mario & Luigi RPG series by Alphadream, Nintendo.
* Shadow Thief's original speaking highlight was going to be holding the S in some sentences, like a snake. This was later changed to a scottish accent.
* Apparently, "Shadow Thief" isn't his real name, but instead just a nickname. However, his real name is unknown.