Truth Hunters- Errand #1

"How in the world did they come up with such colorful languages?" I asked in awe, looking at the profanities written on the wall that I have to "censor". Taking the errand from Luke seemed like such a good idea at first, I mean, just how much damage could a bunch of Smeargles cause, right? As it turns out, it wasn't damage I had to worry about, it was the mess.

"You don't have to make it sound like they are works of art, Zenneth, these are profanities aimed at various individuals in Andalusst of considerable fame, as such, these can be considered as products of vandalism and should be dealt with accordingly." Marcus commented, scowling at the graffiti on the wall like it was some roadkill he'd have to clean up. 

"Yeah, well, the Guards aren't the ones that's cleaning up, are they?" I retorted, grabbing the piece of cloth they gave and applying the 'Miracle Organic Paint Remover' that were also given by them onto the cloth.

"Profanities aside, these are actually quite beautiful," I continued, commenting on the murals they made, "I'm pretty sure you're just mad because they wrote some insults here to the Royal Guards, aren't you?" 

Marcus humphed aloud, "I may not be able to see well, but I do know how to identify the various acts of vandalism, and this is one."

"Whatever you say, friend. Now, can you help me out here?" I asked, "This 'Miracle Paint Remover' isn't removing anything." standing back, I revealed the initial results of my washing efforts to Marcus, to which he simply smirked and said,

"Amazing, Zenneth, you made a smudge, that is quality work right there."

I was about to reply with the fact that everything he sees is basically one huge smudge, but decided against it. He's touchy about that subject and I'm afraid that I will lose my cleaning partner, since Ven backed out earlier, saying, "I have more pressing obligations than improving the city's aesthetics." So instead, I said, "Yeah, yeah, look, all you have to do is heat this wall up, I'll handle the rest."

He looked at me with a questioning look, before before closing his eyes and concentrated on his Flare Blitz. His fur shimmered before bursting to flames, the heat slowly melting the paint away. After a while, I called him cut the flames and set to work. Using Extremespeed, scraping the paint off the walls was a piece of cake, especially after Marcus's heat treatment. After I'm done, I stood back and examined my work. The profanities are all safely removed, while the other murals and paintings were relatively untouched. If only Ven could see me now.

"What are you looking so smug for?" Marcus asked, "Unless you haven't noticed, we have other walls to tend to," he continued, indicating the other graffitied walls. Taking a deep breath, I took grabbed the cloth along with some tool that they provided and said,

"Let's do this, then." And started down the streets.

Using the heating and scraping method, the cleaning process was actually quite fast,half way through cleaning, however, Marcus suddenly stood to attention, "It's them" he said, as his ears began twitching and he begun sniffing the air, the way he usually does when pin-pointing the location of a suspect. 

"Who?" I ventured,

"Those bloody Vandals that made this mess!" He replied with a low growl.

He began to crouch down, and I knew what that meant, "Dude-" I began, but he was already gone, with only dust clouds occupying where he once been. I sighed and briefly wondered if I should chase after him, but decided against it. Marcus is actually a softie, despite initial appearances, and I'm sure that the worst he would do to these "vandals" was just giving them community service as punishment or something.

Looking around, I could see that the Smeargles really went wild after the attack, with graffities that range from beautiful murals to weird messages about the arrival of gods. But still, seeing the amount of people who volunteered for this errand, I felt an odd sense of assurance that Andalusst will be left more beautiful than ever once we are done with this. With that in mind, I picked up my tools and began searching for any 'mon that seems to be interested in having an errand partner.