The tap tap tap of insect legs drew his attention almost immediately. He darkened the screen of his phone and stuffed it into his pocket. No reason to draw attention to himself if it was anyone other than his contact. A tall, shadowed form made its way around a corner and he stiffened slightly. Nemesis flexed and stared it down, prepared for any sudden movements. When it passed into a shred of setting sunlight, Cap made it for what it was: a Scolipede. The pair stared at each other for a moment, tense, but as soon as Cap realized it was alone, he relaxed. Nemesis stared down the tall bug Pokemon as it waved its antenna at them, clicked, and moved back the way it came. Even if it was some kind of lookout, better to leave it alone and let it do its job.

It took longer than he'd like to admit for Cap to settle his nerves again. He was decidedly out of practice on the shadier parts of his job—it had been a while since he'd been in the field proper. He took a steadying breath as the Scolipede disappeared into the growing shadows. A tense few moments passed while Cap waited to see if the bug would bring someone back with it. Only silence followed. He blew out a breath and leaned against the building, pulling out his phone again to check the time. They were officially late.

A sudden figure at his elbow caught his attention. "Son of a—" Cap hissed, lurching away from where the Nuzleaf suddenly appeared. How many of these vaguely-human-looking assholes were going to pop out of the woodwork tonight? "Shoo," he said, waving a hand at the Pokemon. "Get outta here before you get me seen." The Nuzleaf frowned at him, but quickly scampered off into the night without complaint.

Cap was left alone with this thoughts again. Well, as alone as he could be with Nemesis posted up beside him. She wasn't exactly there for intellectual support. Time clicked by minute after minute. Eventually, the sun had completely disappeared beyond the horizon, and one lone light created an island of safety from the darkness. Beyond that, he could see the lights of Slateport. Cap sighed, checking his phone, and decided to call it. He dusted his hands off and headed for home.

There was a tromp, tromp, tromp that followed along behind him as he walked. When Cap stopped, the tromp, tromp, tromp stopped. For half a second, he had to build up the courage to turn around. If this was a cross-up, whoever was trying to pull it off was doing a downright terrible job. When he did turn to look, he could barely make out the form of a Venusaur behind him. Nemesis growled and took a threatening step forward. The Venusar, much to Cap's surprise, shirked back with a low rumble.

"You're hardly an assassin," Cap said with a laugh. "We can fix that." He reached into his bag to toss a spare Pokeball.