PMDU Task 1: Capture the Agent

“Alright!” The pokemon in the front of the room said. “That concludes the mission briefing, stay safe out there, and keep a sharp eye for those spies.”

The room erupted into a half-hearted cheer, with only a handful of pokemon with enough energy to even want to deal with this rather bland situation.

Anubis, as always was not one of the former.

“Alright Willow! I’m excited to hunt these guys, are you?”

Willow rubbed her eyes, still reeling a bit from the rather loud morning she had. “Not really?” Willow said, though it sounded more like a whisper than anything else.

“Come on Willow, I need you to be at one hundred percent today because we are gonna have to make a plan to capture one of these guys.” Anubis said, trying to shake Willow awake. “And you know how I am with plans.”

Willow takes a deep breath and rubs her head in thought. “Hm...well, one of the three is a Riolu that’s around your age, right?”

“Oh, right.” Anubis said, stopping his excessive shaking. Willow stumbled back a bit, recollecting her thoughts, and rubbing her head. “But I hear he’s already kind of a nervous wreck, isn’t there someone a bit more appropriate to fight?”

“If you feel up for trying to fight one of the other two, sure. But what I mean is that you two would look alike, yes?”

Anubis smiled, and started to shake Willow again in excitement. “Willow! that’s brilliant, I never would’ve even think about something like that.” Anubis once again stopped his shaking and stood back, pondering the situation a bit. “But how do I speak in an Iaponese accent?”

Willow was tempted to say how much the ridiculous shaking irked her, but decided against it for the time of being.

Willow silently pondered before saying “I don’t know, actually. Never heard the accent before. Or if I had, I don’t remember it.”

“Wait a sec, the Riolu was last seen with a specific outfit on right?” Anubis rubbed the back of his head, confused on what to do. “How would we go about getting that?”

“Yeah...I have an idea on how to cover half of the outfit.”

Anubis looked at Willow for a bit before looking down at his own paws. Then, a a possibly brilliant idea struck him.

“Willow, I can tie these wraps around my head and use them as a bandana!” Anubis said, as he hastily unwrapped his hand wraps and started to tie them around his head. As excited as Anubis was, one thing was off. “What are we gonna do about the scarf then?”

“That’s what I was going to say. Follow me,” Willow said before heading back to their room. Back there, she unbuttoned her bag and took out a tattered scarf. It seems to be discolored from Willow’s journey through the desert.

“Huh, think this will do?” Anubis said, scanning the scarf.

“Should work, at a glance,” Willow assured as she gave him the scarf, “I don’t think anyone will tell the difference unless they held it in there hands and took a good look at it.”

“Hm, I guess while I’m at it, I'd have to avoid members from the other guilds too huh?”

“Certainly. That, or leave your disguise off until you catch sight of one of the ninjas.”

“I dunno, I think I kinda like this look.” Anubis said, looking in a mirror. “And old pops taught me a thing or two about slinking around.”

“It does look nice on you,” Willow says with a chuckle. “Maybe we can get a proper one for you later. But anyways, yeah you should be careful then. Don’t want to attract the ire of any guild teams out in the city. Especially not one of the more...ah…’zealous’ ones.”

“Yeah, some of those guys look scary strong.” Anubis replied, shuddering at the thought. “Anyway, we have to move out, I’ll be around the city, just keep your eyes on me and don’t blink, or else you might miss me.” Anubis boasted.

“I’ll try. Don’t get too overconfident.”

“Alright.” Anubis said, nodding.

---------

“Alright Willow, I’m off, If you see anything, give me some kind of signal a fair distance away, ok?”

“I can swing my stick around, if you can see that from far away.”

Anubis nodded his head. “Alright, now we were told the first place we were probably going to find the sceptile is in a berry market, which will most likely be crowded with pokemon.” Anubis smiled. “Wish me luck, ‘kay?” He said as he rushed into the crowd, disappearing almost without a trace.

Willow waves to Anubis before scanning the crowd. A difficult feat, as she was shorter than the majority of the Pokemon there.

Immediately after slinking into the crowd, Anubis found it almost impossible to see anything except for relatively small children. He never had to do something like this before, and he predicted that it was going to be quite a feet trying to feel his way through the crowd and find the targets.

Anubis’s dad often talked about using his aura to find things without his eyes but, Anubis never was really good at using such things. He’d always get lectured about how riolu his age already could do plenty things with their aura, but for Anubis it just… Never clicked he supposed. As Anubis pushed his way through the crowd, slipping his way through pokemon rather skillfully, he regretted not having that kind of power, to simply just know where a pokemon was.

Anubis sighed, and just decided to follow the crowd for a bit, but then he felt something collide with him, and trip. He stopped immediately and looked down upon a Riolu that was curiously wearing the same get up as he was.

The Riolu got up and turned around.

“Sorry, sorry, very sorry!” He said with a thick accent that Anubis never heard before.

“Oh, it’s ok, here.” Anubis said as he presented his paw to the Riolu. The Riolu took his hand and got up.

“Once again, very sorry, I am in rush, so sorry for bump into you!” The Riolu said in a weird jumble of words.

“Ah, don’t be sorry,” Anubis said, waving his hand dismissively. “I wasn’t exactly looking where I was going either.” Anubis said, rubbing the back of his head. “Oh hey, since we bumped into each other, how about we go get ice cream together? I’ll pay for it,” Anubis said with a friendly smile.

There was a certain sparkle in the Riolu’s eyes before he shook his head, evidently shaking himself out of a trance. “Maybe later, when I don’t have important thing okay?”

Anubis looked at him a bit, and then nodded. “Alright, I guess I have something I need to do too.”

The Riolu bowed then ran in the other direction as if he was in a big rush.

“Hey, wait what’s your name?” Anubis shouted after him.

“Name is Hikou!” He shouted back, before rushing through the crowd.

Anubis’s eyes widened in sudden realization. “Hey-!” But before he could get his attention again, he was gone with the wind. How could Anubis let the objective slip through his fingers once again? Anubis gave a deep sigh. Well, on the bright side, he at least knew what an Iaponese spy would sound like. He moved out of the crowd to take a quick gauge on his surroundings, but he couldn’t seem to see any hint of any of the other two agents. He shook his head, he hoped that right now Willow was having much more luck than he was.

Willow waded through the crowd, perhaps even more lost than Anubis was. Right now the only course of action for her was to walk around and maybe stumble upon one of the three targets by accident. It was a plan that practically relied on luck. The fact that it was the only one she had at the moment rubbed her the wrong way. She already had bad experiences with getting lost, though here it was arguably safer than in the Fog.

She suddenly spotted a set of feet that could be the Sceptile’s. Willow attempted to get closer through the multitude of Pokemon in her way. Unfortunately, once she got close enough, it turned out that it was just a Grovyle taking care of her two younger siblings. Willow let out a sigh of frustration. She turned around and went back into the crowd, but not before taking a glance back at the three. Willow became distracted again, recalling memories of long ago. They were still vague, but had just enough clarity that Willow kept racking her head trying to fully remember them. This was interrupted when she suddenly bumped into someone and fell over. She rubbed her head and looked towards the offending Pokemon, which appeared to be Anubis.

“Anubis, what are you doing?” Willow said in an annoyed manner.

“Huh? You talk to me?” Anubis said in a rather strange accent.

“Yeah, you just bumped into me-actually that was my fault anyways. Sorry about that. Can you get my stick?”

“Your stick?” Anubis asked, looking down at the stick lying on the ground. “Why would you need stick like that?”

“I need to walk, remember? What’s going on with-” Willow froze for a moment, processing what’s going on. “Oh, ah, sorry, mistook you for someone else.” Willow tried to pick herself up.

“Oh!” The Riolu said, putting his paw to his chin thoughtfully. “You mean Riolu I saw second ago.”

“Yeah, he’s a friend of mine,” Willow said, trying to act as natural as possible. She tries to walk over to pick up her stick before stumbling.

“Well, he very friendly, so I repay kindness.” The Riolu said as he picked up the stick and dropped it by Willow. “Oh!” The Riolu suddenly jumped, as if hit by some kind of realization. “Have to go now, very important thing to do.” He said as he ran off into the crowd.

Willow was going to say something to stop the Riolu as she picked up the stick (and mentally readied herself to use it as a bludgeon) but decided against it. Instead she shouted “Thank you!” to the Riolu as he disappeared into the crowd. She stood there for a while, pondering. Nothing about her moved, except for the leaves on her stick rustling gently in the wind.

“...Why is someone like him getting involved in all of this?” she said, to no one in particular. It was only now that she had some time to think on that. She sighed and walked through the crowd again. She hoped that Anubis would have some better luck at finding one of the ninjas. After all, both of them already stumbled upon the youngest and smallest of the bunch, so it won’t be long until they find the rest, right?

Anubis continued to wander aimlessly through the berry market, searching all over the place for even a trace of the Sceptile, but was met with nothing but more of the same things. Sometimes Anubis wished that just once, the bad guy would find him and complete the objective.

Oh how he wished the thought didn't even come to his mind.

Suddenly, out of nowhere Anubis felt a hand grab on to his arm as he was quickly pulled away into a rather secluded alleyway.

“What were you thinking?” A voice asked him rather angrily. “You could have been caught out there, they already sent out a search order and everything.” He sighed. “Did you at the very least finish your task?” He said as he turned Anubis around only to reveal both of them to each other. “Well?” He said when he was met with silence from Anubis.

Anubis couldn’t believe his eyes.

In fact, this time, his enemy DID find him.

“U-uh, yes sir!” Unfortunately for Anubis, he was always a terrible liar

The Sceptile gave him a strange look that Anubis could only see as sudden suspicion. “Well, now we gotta get out of here quick, I think they’re on to us”

Anubis started to sweat profusely, which would’ve made for a great act, if only it were an act. “W-wait, what about Greninja?” Anubis said in his best Iapon impression.

“He’ll find a way out on his own, you know how he is.” The Sceptile said, looking out of the alley checking for any disturbances in the crowd.

“O-oh ok.” Anubis stuttered out as he nervously looked at his feet.

The sceptile suddenly hissed. “I see one of the enemy, a Snivy, and I see a few others up and about searching for us. These Andalussians really do know nothing about sneaking. They’re so obvious with their movements.”

“Oh, yes, they very dumb.” Anubis said, hiding a smile. “Aanyway, let’s drop the facade, ‘kay?” Anubis said, cracking his knuckles.

“Ah, should’ve known.” The Sceptile said, not even turning around to face Anubis.

“Hey! We gonna fight or what?” Anubis shouted, letting a punch rip into the Sceptile, tearing his head clean off. Anubis gasped when he saw exactly what he did punch. Before him was nothing but a wooden figure built to the likeness of the Sceptile.

Chuck chuck chuck

Anubis turned around to face where the sound came from, but after a quick scan, he didn’t see a thing.

“EASY KILL!” He heard shout from above. Immediately, Anubis instinctively looked up and saw a fist rapidly approaching Anubis. Anubis quickly side-stepped out of the way, caught the Sceptile’s hand mid air, then brought him down to the ground, smashing the Sceptile’s body on the ground with assistance with his own weight.

However, the Sceptile was quick to recover, bouncing up from his state quickly.

“You fight okay for a child.” The Sceptile said, smirking.

“I’m not a kid!” Anubis yelled, using a nearby wall to propel himself at the Sceptile, ready to unleash another punch.

It was only mid-air that Anubis realized that he played right into his hands.

The Sceptile quickly stepped out of the way, letting Anubis crash into the side of a building. The Sceptile lifted a foot to crush him right there, but Anubis rolled out of the way just in time and backflipped up.

“Any other child would’ve been too hurt to resist after that.” The Sceptile said, apparently a bit amused. “Just who are you?”

“Has anyone told you that you talk too much?” Anubis said, getting into a defensive position.

Chuck chuck chuck

The sceptile suddenly threw a small object directly at Anubis. Anubis knew exactly what it was, and he had to make a split second decision. Of course Anubis could always dodge something like that, but too many pokemon would get hurt, not to mention the noise it would make.

Anubis kept his eye on the seed, and when it approached the ground, he quickly rolled over it, launching him into the air, but keeping noise to a minimum as well as keeping damage to everything but him down.

He collided into a side of a building, making a sickening crack and a sudden flash of pain.

“I would finish you off here, but to do that to a child especially one like you would make me feel bad.” The Sceptile said smugly.

“Don’t call me a child.” Anubis growled out. Anubis tried to get up, but was stopped by a massive amount of pain coming from his arm. He let out a yelp of pain as he collapsed.

“You didn’t think something as small and pathetic as you would be able to win did you?” The Sceptile said, chuckling. “No witnesses I suppose.” The Sceptile said, putting a foot on Anubis’s head, locking him in place. The Sceptile leaned down close to Anubis. “This is what happens when you do the whole ‘white knight’ act. You brought this defeat upon yourself.”

“Anubis!” A familiar voice called out.

The Sceptile only was able to get out a ‘huh?’ before Anubis twirled around using head as a swivel, tripping the Sceptile and freeing up Anubis. Anubis rolled out of the way, bent his dislocated arm back into position and resumed a combat stance.

“Stupid child!” The Sceptile shouted as he let loose a punch at Anubis in blinding speed.

Anubis dodged behind the Sceptile and grabbed on to his arm, laying one paw on his joint and one on his upper arm. Anubis then swung him downwards, putting him down on the ground pretty hard, making visible cracks on the floor.

The Sceptile groggily got up, but this time Anubis wasn’t so keen on allowing him to recover. Anubis swung his foot around which collided with him so hard that it sent the sceptile careening into a nearby wall, knocking him out.

Anubis let out a sigh of relief and collapsed from exhaustion, giving him some much needed peace and quiet. Anubis coughed a few times as the adrenaline started to wear off and the pain started to come back. He simply sat there, left to ponder the whole fight, and some of the strange things that the Sceptile had said.

Was what that Sceptile said true? Was always thinking of other pokemon losing him fights? As much as Anubis wanted to say that that was not true and would never be true, something tugging in his heart told him otherwise. He shook his head. How could it be possible? He was grown to think that doing good things will bring good things, but has the urge to do good things become a weakness? Something for other pokemon to exploit? He looked over at the limp Sceptile leaning against the wall, eyes closed. Anubis shook his head. That Sceptile was probably just trying to get under his skin.

Right?

“Anubis!” Willow called, rushing to his side, and breaking him out of deep thought.

“Oh… Hi Willow.” Anubis said weakly.

Willow panted for a moment before looking over to the Sceptile and saying “...Woah, I didn’t expect you to have done that by yourself.”

Anubis chuckled lightly, before bursting into a coughing fit.

“You pushed yourself too hard again, huh?” Willow ask as she patted Anubis on the back.

“Do it yourself next time he said.” Anubis muttered under his breath.“Just help me move that guy back to base will ya?” Anubis said, pointing at the Sceptile. “I’m gonna take a break.”

“Hm…” Willow looked at the Sceptile, then at her own hands. “Well, I won’t be able to do it alone. Just keep watch of him, alright? I’ll head back to get some help.”

“Alright, he said that he spotted a few guild members in the crowd, you should start there.”

“Got it, will be back soon then,” Willow said before heading back into the crowd.