To Free Butterfree
Several months had passed and I was travelling to visit at Aunt by sea. I was not exceptionally happy at having to visit my ancient Aunt Maureen, and Maki did not seem overly cheered at the idea either. The guides on the ferry had already told him off six times for prodding into things he should not touch and he was currently sulking on my shoulder. I stood by the railing, watching the ferry whip over the waves and pondered my Aunt Maureen. She lived in a huge house, filled with wonderful antiques that I was not allowed to touch and beautiful rugs that I was forbidden to step on. The thought of letting Maki loose in a place like that sent a shiver down my spine. Dolfins, a beautiful water Pokemon frolicked cheerfully along behind the ferry.
"Maaki!" Maki declared, greeting a girl that had just wandered up to stand beside me.
"Hi," she said cheerfully, "my name's Amelia. I couldn't help noticing your Pokemon."
"Noone can," I replied, "he makes himself noticed. Maki jumped onto her shoulder. "I'm Kataryna, but most people call me Kat. This is Maki, he's a Makimur."
"Maki-murr," he purred happily. "Maki ma ki ki maki mur mur imur."
Amelia grinned. "I think he wants to meet my Pokemon."
Maki nodded. "Maki kimur imur ma mur."
I shrugged. "Sometimes I wish I had a translator."
"Don't we all. What type is he? I'm a Fire Trainer."
"MAKI!"
"He's grass type, so I guess he doesn't like that idea! My other Pokemon are water type though."
"Cool. I'll show you one." She pulled out a Pokeball. "Come Growlithe."
"Growl-lithe," the puppy Pokemon barked. Maki leapt onto my shoulder and hid beneath my hair.
"We met an Arcanine a little while ago," I informed her. "He's not too happy about it."
"Oh, sorry," Amelia blushed, "Growlithe return. Phoenix, I chose you." A bird only slightly bigger than a Pidgey and reddish-orange materialised, perching on the railing."
"Phe nix nix," it cawed.
"Ma maki ki ki?" Asked Maki.
"What is that?" I asked.
"It's a Phoenix. I found it when on a trip to see a live volcano. The Professor believes it might be a fledgling Moltres."
"Wow, a Moltres. It'll be fun when that fellow evolves!"
"Nix!" The Phoenix agreed.
"That's Professor Oak, yes?" I asked.
"The one and the same. He thinks there must be at least another fifty types of Pokemon that have never been discovered!"
"Yeah. Well, keep an eye on that one, I've already had someone try to steal my Maki."
"Really?"
"Yeah," and I told her about Team Rocket.
* * *
The trip went faster now I had a friend. We were playing pool in the gamesroom (and trying to stop Maki stealing the balls and moving them) when a man in dark clothing and dark glasses wandered in.
"Maki?!" Maki, who had been chewing the chalk, marched across the tail and stared at him. "Maki maki ki kimur?" He asked.
The man looked at him, or at least the glasses did. "What do you want?" He asked.
I turned to face him. "He's just curious about who you are," I informed him. "He's curious about everything, just ignore him."
"Murr!" Maki hissed angrily.
"Cute wee fellow, perhaps I could teach you something more about him. I study Pokemon and I'm sure I've read about something like him in my library."
I glanced at Amelia. She gave me a look that plainly said, don't trust that man.
"It's ok," I replied, as politely as possible. "I think I know enough about him as it is. I'm afraid I'm kind of busy at the moment."
"Fair enough," he replied, "although if you knew more about him you could teach him some more skills, yes? Anyway," he pulled out a card and scrawled on it. "Here's my room number and my name, if you want to go through my texts, come see me." He handed me a piece of paper with "Nicholas Crumb – Pokemon Researcher and Trainer – Rm 442". And then he left.
Amelia and I shared a look. "I don't trust him," she said. "Either he wants to try and lure you into his room alone or he wants to steal your Pokemon."
"That's rather negative," I replied. But I also had my doubts.
We would only be staying on the ferry for another night, and I had a cabin mostly to myself and a couple of other, older girls. Conversation there tended to begin on boys and end on popular music, both topics which did not interest me in the slightest. Sure, boys were ok, but I did not see the need to talk about them for hours on end. About midnight, when the conversation had not changed much and I could not get to sleep, I decided to wander up to the deck, Maki was bored, and quite frankly, so was I. It might be nice to see the stars.
I was almost to deck when a person talking up ahead made me stop. I recognised the voice immediately. It was that man that had talked to Amelia and I and had seemed so fascinated in Maki.
"Yes, the shipment is fine… don't worry, they'll be on dock four at noon tomorrow… I've got twenty of them… yeah … found a kid today with something … I'll see what I can do. You can count on me, boss." I drew back. He was certainly up to no good! I quickly sneaked back down the hallway and went to find Amelia.
Amelia's room was in darkness, so I rapped loudly on the door.
"Wha'" came a sleepy voice.
"Makimur, maki mur," Maki said excitedly, in a loud whisper.
"Amelia?" I hissed.
"Sshh," she replied. "Don't you know what time it is?"
"Come here," I ordered her.
"Ok," she muttered, "but this better be important."
I heard her climb out of bed and make her way to the doorway.
"It's very important," I told her. "You know that Crumb guy?"
"Yeah, the crumby one who tried to lure you into his room."
"Yeah, him, I think he's doing something bad."
"No kidding, there's definitely something wrong with him. What's he doing?"
I explained what I'd overheard. "I think he wants to steal Maki," I added.
"Doesn't everyone?" Amelia chuckled. "That means he'll want Phoenix too. Should we tell someone?"
"Who'd believe a couple of kids?" I asked. "Look, he's in the hallway, having a conversation on a cellphone or something. That means he's not in his room. Maybe we should go look."
"Oh puh-lease," Amelia scowled. "You want to break into someone's room and search it? You could get into a lot of trouble for that."
"He'll get in a lot of trouble if he tries to steal Maki." I replied. "Besides, I can look after myself, I've got a vaporeon and a seadra."
"You're serious!" Amelia sounded almost excited at the idea.
"Of course I'm serious! Look, if we can't find anything incriminating in there, we get out, ok? What could go wrong?"
"I'm not even going to go there!" Amelia replied. "Well. Ok…"
We stole down the hallway to room 442. There was darkness beneath the door.
"What if he's back in there?" Amelia asked, being Miss Paranoid.
I rapped lightly on the door. There was no sound beyond it. I tried the handle. It was locked. "Maki," I said, "do your stuff." I held the Lemur Pokemon up to the door and handed him a pin. It took him about two seconds to pick the lock.
"Wow," Amelia seemed in awe, "what a great Pokemon."
"And he learnt everything all by himself," I replied. "It's a great thing, curiosity."
I eased open the door, listening for the sounds of breathing. Nothing but silence greeted me. I clicked on my torch, shading the beam with my hand. The bed was empty, and made, although the sheets were crinkled as though someone had been sitting on it.
"Stay here, Amelia," I hissed to her, "if you hear anything, and I mean anything, tell me and I shall get out of here straight away."
She nodded. "Can I lend you a Pokemon?"
"I don't think fire on a boat is a good idea," I replied. "We'll save yours for an emergency." I stroked Maki on the head. He'd been sitting in the sun all day, he must be fully recharged. The star on his forehead almost seemed to glow.
I squeezed through the door and shone the torch around the room. Closet, bed, chest of drawers, and suitcase. Well, the closet looked like a good place to start. I opened it. A few barren clothes hangers and a suit jacket looked back at me. Nothing else. Outside, I could hear Amelia's frightened breathing. I opened his suitcase, more clothing, a diary. A shirt caught my eye. It was a white shirt with a large red "R" drawn on it, circled. Aha! A Team Rocket shirt! He was definitely up to no good. I had just picked up the diary when I heard Maki whispering urgently "Maki maki!"
He was under the bed, trying desperately to open a large suitcase. I kneeled beside him. It was locked.
"Unlock it," I hissed at the Makimur. Maki was only too willing to oblige. As I shone my torch in there, I gasped. It was filled with Pokeballs! On top of them rested a piece of paper. On it was a list of Pokemon names with numbers beside them.
"Someone's coming!" Came an urgent voice from outside the door.
Grabbing a Pokeball, I took an empty Pokeball from my pocket and put it in the space, buried it and closed the suitcase (hearing it click locked), scooped up Maki and fled the room. The footsteps were quite a way away, but coming steadily closer. Closing the door behind us, we retreated as quietly as possible down the hallway before making a run for it. I hoped that Nicholas Crumb (if that was his real name) would think he had just forgotten to lock his door when he left. If he suspected anything…
Amelia and I made our way to the deck, too hyped up on adrenaline to return to our rooms. Maki bounced eagerly on my shoulder. I showed her the ball I had stolen.
"Let's see what's in it," I said excitedly, tossing it in the air, "go whomever you are!"
"Freeeee," it warbled, flapping around my head.
"Why, it's a Butterfree," Amelia stated, "is that rare?"
I shrugged. "Well, Caterpies are as common as Pidgeys, but Butterfrees are somewhat rarer, I'm sure."
"Butterfree," I called to it, "was that man your human?"
"Butter…" it muttered, shaking its head. "But, but ter freeee freee ter ter butter freeeee."
"I think its trying to tell us how it got there," Amelia suggested.
Maki nodded. "Maaki maki mak mak kimur murrr."
"I wish I could understand you both," I replied.
Suddenly something occurred to Amelia. "My mother told me that there was a Pokemon Breeder on the ferry, a really famous one. Do you think he could understand Butterfree?"
"Probably, but its one aee mee in the morning. I don't think he will appreciate us waking him up!"
"Yeah, well maybe in the morning then. What if Nicholas finds us before then?"
"He won't, he won't even know his Butterfree's been stolen until tomorrow when he feeds them, and even then he won't know it was us."
Neither of us got much sleep that night, though.
I met Amelia before breakfast.
"I asked my mother about the breeder," she informed me, "turns out he's an old family friend and he's having breakfast with us. I told her I wanted to ask him about Phoenix," she added shyly.
"Cool," I replied. "I'll ask him about Maki. We try and drag him aside after breakfast right?"
"Right!"
Dr Jonstone was actually a lot younger than we had expected, and good looking in a sort of mature way. He had wavy brownish red hair and bright green eyes. He listened carefully as I told him about how we had broken into room 442 and stolen a Butterfree.
He scolded us, "that was a very stupid thing to do girls, not only was it illegal, but it was also very dangerous, especially if he is with Team Rocket. They seem to be getting more sly nowadays, no more stupid rhymes and pathetic mottos, just jump in and steal the Pokemon. Let's see this Butterfree."
I handed him the ball and he released it, having a most involved conversation. When it was finished he nodded at us. "Luckily girls, you were right in this case, this man is with Team Rocket. The Butterfree was stolen from its owner, a young boy named Cameron or some such thing, and then packaged away. It seems to have been some months since it was captured. The man feeds them and very little else and the Butterfree wants nothing more than to go home to its boy."
Cameron? That name sounded familiar, but I could not quite remember where from. "So what do we do now?"
"We shall have to go and talk to the security on board the ferry. They will arrange things so that this Nicholas Crumb will be picked up at the dock and hopefully arrested. You did a naughty thing girls, but you also did a good thing. I'm sure you won't be blamed too much. It is a good thing, however, that we dock in about two hours."
After that we went to talk to security. Amelia and I were scolded again, and the Security guard threatened to write and tell my parents that we had been breaking and entering, but they radioed the land Police and seemed proud of us in a silent way.
The dock got closer and we could see the faces of everyone watching and waving to the passengers.
"There's Aunt Maureen!" I shouted, pointing her out to Maki.
"Maki murr!" He shrieked joyously, jumping up and down.
Amelia handed me a piece of paper. "This is my address and phone number," she said, "come and visit me whilst you're in town." I grinned at her.
"I most certainly shall," I replied, handing her a similar piece of paper. "Aunt Maureen keeps the place like a museum, but come and visit if you dare."
And then we were ashore.
The Security had warned Amelia and I that we should not hang around to watch the apprehension and that with the Butterfree and Dr Jonstone giving evidence we would not be required at all, so we missed on seeing the fun, but two days later (when I was trying to extract Maki from the priceless Grandfather Clock), the doorbell rang.
"Hello there, Kat, is it?" Asked Officer Jenny.
"That's me," I replied, slightly guiltily.
"I've come to tell you that Nicholas and his accomplice have been arrested and will go to jail. However, that's not only why I'm here, I've been told to give you this." She handed me a Pokeball.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's the Butterfree you liberated from the suitcase. Apparently, if it can't return to its first human, it wants to stay with you. If you do find a young lad by the name of Cameron, then perhaps you might like to return it to him. Otherwise," she shrugged. "You broke the law, but you helped us catch a smuggler, so I guess we can forgive you, as long as you don't do it again. Next time come to us first, even if it is midnight. We'll try and believe you." She grinned. "Duty calls," and with a wave, she was gone. I stared at the Pokeball in my hands.
"Well Butterfree," I said to it, "it looks like you and I will be travelling for a while yet."
"Maki!" Maki agreed.