Richard ran his finger along the map. According to it, they should have one turn left before Fuchsia City. It had been a while but they were minutes away from entering the city.

Janine was getting more cranky the closer they were, leading the guys once again to believe something really bad must have happened here for Janine to hate it so much.

"If you want we can go around?" Richard offered. "There's a road to the right that will lead us to a beach south of Fuchsia City. Danny and Lester can go in and battle the gym."

Janine looked up. "That's not necessary. I'm not looking forward to entering but I can't run away from it."

Richard nodded and the silence returned.

Janine felt extremely nervous but she wasn't going to run again, time to face her demons.

"Well, we're here." Danny started speeding up, making him the first to reach the curve. He suddenly stopped.

As the others made their way towards him they saw the problem: A gigantic rock was blocking the road. It didn't seem ascendable and it was way too large for the four of them to push aside, even with help from their Pokémon.

"What now…?" Danny asked.

Richard was already investigating the map.

"That road to the right is our only option. We have to backtrack a bit, I think that will take us another four to five days."

Danny sighed loudly.

"I'm sorry Danny." Richard said with a sense of guilt in his voice.

"It's not your fault, you didn't put it there."

A lot less excited than before the group made their way back. Janine felt a bit relieved that whatever she was facing was being postponed, but she knew she had to face it eventually.

While backtracking, the silence had returned. Although sometimes, you don't need to talk for it to be noisy. Up ahead, a loud stampede broke through the silence and drew the attention of the group. Dust became visible on the horizon.

Danny squinted his eyes and saw a large, purple thing.

"It's coming straight for us!" He shouted as the jumped out of the way, followed by his friends and their Pokémon.

Just in time it seemed, because seconds later a Nidoking stormed right passed them. He didn't even look at them but was fixated on what was ahead of him.

Danny looked one second before chasing down the Poison type.

"What are you doing?" Richard shouted.

Danny couldn't hear him anymore, or just didn't care to answer.

Logically, a 15 year old human boy was way faster than a bulky monster, so Danny had caught up to Nidoking within no time.

"Hi there… Nidoking.." He said while panting, he was in pretty good shape but talking while running was never easy.

"Could you…. help us… take down a… big rock?"

Nidoking didn't pay any attention to the trainer. He just kept running.

Danny tried again, but he was getting exhausted and it didn't seem to work. He became a bit frustrated and decided to tap on Nidoking's shoulder to get his attention.

Bad move.

The Poison type was aware that Danny was there but he didn't care, but once he felt something on his shoulder he turned his head towards he trainer, grabbed his hand with one of his paws and slung the trainer away, all in a matter of seconds and without stopping.

Danny landed in a field filled with grass so he didn't hurt anything, but he was getting angry with the Nidoking. He jumped up and continued his chase. Within a minute, he was all caught up again.

Once again, Nidoking simply couldn't be bothered. Luckily for Danny, Pidgeotto had followed him. He could hear the cry in the sky.

"Pidgeotto! Use Twister to slow Nidoking down."

Pidgeotto screeched and released a big tornado that went straight for the large Poison type, but the latter smashed it to pieces with his tail.

"Again!"

Another Twister found its end on Nidoking's tail.

"Crap this isn't working either. I wish Kadabra was here, he could take it out with Psychic."

Suddenly, Nidoking stopped. Danny wasn't aware and ran a couple extra meters, which landed him in a group of wild Nidorina. Annoyed Nidorina at that. They had been relaxing in the grassy field until they were suddenly disturbed.

"Ehh, hi there." He stammered.

The Nidorina started growling and a larger creature that was lying in the middle got up. Danny's mouth fell open when he looked straight in the eyes of a seriously pissed off Nidoqueen.

He froze for a second before turning around and running as fast as he could, hearing the grunts and growls of his chasers behind him.

He didn't even realize that Nidoking was nowhere to be seen anymore. He kept running until he met up with his group again.

"Run!" He screamed ahead, but the group didn't understand.

"From what?" Janine asked. Danny looked behind him and saw no trail of the Nidorina nor the Nidoqueen.

"They were just there…." Danny managed to say in between panting.

The others were confused. Richard took a few steps in the direction Danny came from but he couldn't see anything besides grass and forest.

They made Danny sit down and once he got his breath, he explained what happened.

"Phew, you should be glad you made it out of there alive. First the Nidoking and then chased by an angry Nidoqueen. Those are not the Pokémon you want to mess with." Lester said.

Danny wasn't listening anymore and had his mind with another problem.

"I bet if we could get both Nidoking and Nidoqueen to help that rock will move….."

The others sighed.

"Are you still thinking about that? Give it up! They won't help us." Janine tried, but Danny was unpersuadable. He got up and started walking towards the direction he had found the Nidoqueen.

"You guys coming?"

His team quickly followed, although Charmeleon was clearly only tagging along to protect his trainer.

"Danny, please let it go." Richard tried.

When that didn't work, he sighed and walked towards Danny, leaving Janine and Lester to join as well.

"Just to be clear, I'm not following you because I think it's the best idea," Janine said. "It's because I really want to see that Nidoqueen wipe the floor with you."

Danny didn't react, instead he kept walking faster, until Nidoking appeared on the horizon, standing in the middle of a field of flowers.

"Is he ….. picking flowers?" Richard was a bit confused.

"Do you guys think Nidoking might be in love with the Nidoqueen?" Danny thought about the scenario a bit, it would make sense why Nidoking couldn't be bothered by him.

"Well if he's in love he won't help us with the gigantic rock, so let's just go." Richard tried, but once again Danny shook his head.

"If we help him get Nidoqueen, he will have to help us."

"Danny no!" The three screamed in unison, but they should know by now it wouldn't work.

"Excuse me Nidoking?"

Nidoking turned his head towards the trainer in annoyance.

"What if we could help you with your crush?" Danny asked bluntly, causing the Nidoking to start blushing.

"No need to be ashamed, we all have crushes from time to time. If you really want her to fall for you flowers aren't going to work." Danny advised.

Nidoking looked at the bouquet he had collected and then back to Danny.

"You need to show her you can protect her, that you are a strong and manly Nidoking."

The Poison type liked the sound of that. He growled and dropped the flowers.

Meanwhile, the other trainers had made their way towards the two as well and were shocked to see that Nidoking was actually listening to Danny.

"So here's the plan: a group of our biggest and scariest Pokémon go towards them and scare the shit out of them."

Weepinbell directly volunteered, followed by Machoke and, with a lot of reluctance, Charmeleon. Ekans also seemed to be up for some fun and so was Lester's Wartortle.

"Krabby, you have the type advantage, so with you it makes it even scarier."

Krabby sighed and crawled towards the group that would go. Janine gestured to Weezing that he should also join, even if it was only to keep an eye on Ekans.

"Okay, that group will go there and when everyone is frightened you will step in and save the day." Danny explained to Nidoking, who nodded.

"So everyone understands the plan? Awesome. Let's go!"

The Nidorina had gone back to their relaxing place, with Nidoqueen laying in the middle. The group travelled silently through some woods to get to the other side of the field, from were they would 'attack'. Danny, Nidoking and the other were hiding behind a large group of bushes.

Weepinbell was the one leading the attack, which was no surprise. They growled and screeched and charged the group, causing the Nidorina to freak out as expected and spread out.

"Okay it's working, Nidoking you're up." Danny whispered, but before they could move a loud roar filled the area.

Nidoqueen got up and raised her hands above her head, causing the ground to tremble. The group approaching fell apart and ran back into the forest, with Charmeleon grabbing Weepinbell (who had no intention of leaving) on the way back.

Another loud howl followed as Nidoqueen wanted to make sure the attackers were gone, after which she went back to relaxing. Meanwhile, the team members re-joined the group, all exhausted from running.

Danny sighed. "So much for that plan."

"That's because you went to wrong way" Lester said. "Nidoqueen can fend for herself, she doesn't need a bodyguard. She wants a romantic spouse that colors up her life."

"Hmm, that doesn't sound that stupid." Richard agreed.

"Nidoking, can you sing?" Lester looked at the Poison type.

"That does sound stupid." Janine started to laugh, but Lester silenced her with his look.

Nidoking didn't seem to be ready to step out there and perform a song.

"You can warm up your voice here and when you're ready, you go out there and sing your way into her heart."

Nidoking opened his jaw and started 'singing'. Sadly singing isn't one of Nidoking's quality's and the sound he produced wasn't pleasant on the ears.

A large amount of rocks made their way over the bushes, hitting Nidoking and his helpers. The Poison type directly stopped singing to seek cover.

"Charmeleon, use Iron Tail to smash them away!" Danny ordered.

"Squirtle, use Bubble beam!"

"Wartortle, you too!"

With the help from their team, the rocks were all destroyed before they could hit them, but there was no question about where they came from. They could hear some grunts coming from the other side from the bushes: Nidoqueen and her Nidorina didn't appreciate the practice all that much.

"Okay so as I predicted, that didn't work out. As the only girl here I suggest we will do it my way. Nidoking, how comfortably are you with dancing?" Janine asked.

The guys started to laugh.

"Dancing? Why on earth would Nidoking go dance for her?" Danny laughed.

"Well if a guy would dance for me I would definitely be interested."

"There's a big difference between you and Nidoqueen." Richard said while rubbing the tears out of his eyes.

Nidoking hadn't reacted, while he didn't understood why the guys were laughing he wasn't feeling very secure about dancing any more than singing.

"It's your call Nidoking, want to give it a shot?"

Nidoking slowly nodded.

"Great, follow my lead."

Janine started with a bit of free dancing, moving around gently and making three jaws drop to the ground. Nidoking followed but had trouble with the moves.

"Now, if you swept her off her feet you can go in for the kill."

She took Nidoking's paws and directed him into a waltz. Sadly for her, Nidoking wasn't very good and constantly stood on her feet. She had to grind her teeth together to not cry out in pain, but she didn't want Nidoking to feel bad.

"Now for the closure piece." Janine said, while pirouetting away.

She turned around and ran towards Nidoking and jumped up, ready for Nidoking to catch her. It might have worked if Nidoking had known what the intention was, he just thought it was part of the dance and stepped aside, letting Janine fall face down onto the ground.

"Well you fell for him." Danny laughed out, causing the others to laugh as well. Lester even fell to the ground.

"Laugh all you like." Janine got up. "That wasn't all that bad for a first time. Want to give it another shot?"

Nidoking shook his head and sat down onto the ground.

The others sat next to him.

"Do any of you have another idea?" Danny asked.

"I'm out." Lester commented.

"Yeah me too." Janine rubbed her painful feet.

"I'm sorry buddy, I'm afraid we might not be able to help you after all." Danny patted Nidoking on his knees.

"Actually, there's one thing we haven't tried yet." Richard said, looking at the flower field. "How about just going with your own plan? Giving her a beautiful bouquet of flowers?"

Nidoking looked up and seemed enthusiastic. Finally a plan he could get behind. He ran towards the field and grabbed the most beautiful flowers. Tulips, lilies and even a wonderful red rose.

He walked back proud and showed the flowers to the trainers.

"If that doesn't win her over I don't know what will." Richard said with a smile.

Nidoking happily growled.

"Go get her buddy." Danny patted the Poison type on his shoulder.

"You got this!" Lester cheered.

"Good luck." Janine smiled.

Strengthened by the best wishes, Nidoking made his way towards his crush, shaking off his nerves. Danny and the others were hiding behind the bushes once again, hoping that this would finally be the way to her heart.

The Nidorina stepped before Nidoqueen in a defensive pose, but Nidoqueen didn't seem to be all that aggressive towards her male counterpart. She even gestured her pre-evolved forms to go aside.

Nidoking walked up to the blue Pokémon and gave her the flowers. She gained blushes on her cheeks and happily growled.

"Who's the relationship king now?" Richard teased, as Nidoking was getting hugged by Nidoqueen, happily accepting his love.

"My method will work next time." Danny muttered.

"Shush, they're coming this way."

The couple walked towards the four trainers, who came out of their hiding place, and Nidoking growled, probably explaining their help in all of this.

Nidoqueen directly recognized the 'attackers' from earlier, but Nidoking's explanation seemed to be enough for her to accept the group.

"I'm glad everything worked out okay." Nidoking was most grateful towards Richard, who had given him the magic trick.

"So now we've helped you out, do you think you could help us out?" Danny asked.

Later

"This is it." Danny showed the Nido's the gigantic rock.

Nidoking stepped forward and investigated it thoroughly. Then he placed his paws against it and started pushing. Nidoqueen and the Nidorina quickly joined, followed by the trainers and their Pokémon.

They pushed with all their strength but the rock still wouldn't bulge.

"Give it everything you got!" Danny screamed, but it wasn't like everyone could push even harder. Eventually, they had no choice but to quit.

"Crap, I really hoped you guys could help us out with this." Danny said sadly.

Nidoking made an apologizing growl, feeling really sorry that he couldn't help his new friends.

"I guess it's the de-tour after all. Thanks for the help anyway." Richard said.

Not only the trainers were disappointed, Nidoqueen looked at her guy and thought he was a little weak. If he couldn't even push that rock aside would he be a good boyfriend.

When Nidoking wanted to grab her paw she refused, which made the purple Poison type anxious.

"Oh no…." Richard said as they saw all the hard work fall apart before their eyes.

Nidoking wasn't having it though. He turned back to the rock and started pushing again. Giving even more power than he did before, still nothing. He turned angry. This stupid rock wasn't going to make his new girlfriend dump him.

He did a few steps back before racing towards the rock. Nidoking jumped into the air and hit the rock with his horn right in the middle. The impact was on the perfect spot and just hard enough, causing the rock to split in two and fall aside, making a narrow path to journey through.

"Wow Nidoking!"

Nidoqueen stormed forward and hugged with Nidoking, now her crush as well.

"As it turns out she does need a manly man." Janine teased Lester, who couldn't think of anything to answer in return.

Nidoqueen overwhelmed Nidoking with kisses and hugs, but the latter wasn't complaining. He only broke it off to say goodbye to his new friends.

"Take care of yourself you two." Richard said, waving the two goodbye.

"Yeah. And thanks for the help. You're the best!" Danny cheered.

Both Poison types happily waved, while holding each other as tight as possible. Meanwhile, the group made their way through the split rock. Ahead of them they could see buildings and the sign 'Fuchsia City' was only footsteps away. They had made it.