Taming of the Spike
The small purple Nidoran pulled on his rope. "Nido-rannn," he growled.
"You don't have a hope in Hades of taming him," Kameron commented, in a friendly enough fashion. He was just stating a fact I had been pondering myself.
"Maki!" Maki jumped down in front of him (safely beyond chain reach, I noticed) and stared at the Nidoran. His golden eyes blazed. The Nidoran quirked its head at him in a puzzled way. Maki began grooming his tail. "Maki-maki-ki-ki-kimurr, maki maki-murrrr."
Totally bewildered, the Nidoran sat back on its haunches. "Nido-nido-nidoran-ran-ran." He scratched behind his huge rabbit-like ear with one hoofed foot.
"What's he doing?" Kameron asked.
I shrugged. "I guess he's telling the Nidoran how do behave."
The strange discussion continued, with both Maki and the Nidoran becoming more and more excited. Maki's eyes flashed gold again. He jumped back on my shoulder. "MaKI!"
"Come on," Kameron said. "You've been dragging that thing along on a rope all day. Let's put him away and go and get something to eat. I'm famished."
"You know I've got him on a rope to try and get him used to us," I replied. "If I let him off, he runs away and he poisoned that poor little Eevee, remember? I've got to stop him attacking other Pokemon on sight!"
"He didn't attack Maki." Kameron interjected. "Besides, he's kind of embarrassing, why do you persist with him? We could just let it go somewhere."
I stuck out my chin. Kameron obviously had yet too realise how stubborn I was. "Maki could charm the hindlegs off a Rapidash," I explained. "And why do I persist? Because I want to prove that just because a Pokemon has been treated badly, that it will act badly forever."
The Nidoran stared up at me, its red eyes somewhere between madness and confusion. The poor thing was bewildered.
"Have you found out why it is like it is?" Kameron asked. "No normal Pokemon would act like that."
"I haven't a clue. Maki knows something, but I can't understand him properly yet, all I know is that it has something to do with fighting. And not normal, controlled fighting, but out of control fighting."
Kameron shuddered. "Sounds nasty. No wonder the poor blighter is a little unstable." He bent down to face it. It looked at him in a puzzled fashion. "Why are you so wild, little guy?" He asked it.
"Nido nido-rann," it growled in reply.
"I think it feels humans are evil," he replied. "But I can't understand it that well. I'm just guessing."
"It's a shame we don't have a translator," I replied. At that point, something happened.
It never fails
To protect the world from temptation
To unite all people in humiliation
To denounce the evils of mischief and love
To extend our reach to the world's above
Loki!
Freya!
Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of mind
Surrender now, or prepare for flight
Abra! Kadabra! – All right!"
Before us stood two people, both older than us. One, the male, had long silver-white hair, sapphire blue eyes and a mischievous grin, the other, female, had rainbow coloured hair braided together. Her eyes were amber, and sparkled with something I could not quite describe… She was astonishingly attractive, I could see Kameron's eyes bulge out of his skull in a humorous cartoon manner.
"We've come for your…" she glanced at Maki. Her voice was like honey, but less sticky. "…Little grey thing."
"MAKI!" Maki shrieked.
The blue eyed boy pulled out a Pokeball. "Go Kadabra!" He shouted.
"Kadabraa," the scary psychic Pokemon said.
Nidoran growled at it. Maki glared.
"Kadabra, psyshock!"
"Kadaabra," Kadabra waved his spoon. There was a bright flash, a bright flash behind my eyes. My head felt light, like a feather, and my knees felt weak, so weak. I crumpled to my knees.
"Grab it Freya!" was the last words I heard before my brain went black.
I don't know how long it was before my world stopped dancing behind my eyes. Grimly, I plied them open. The bright light seemed to reach into my eyeballs and burn my retina. After a while though, pure sight returned. I was lying, sprawled out in the dirt. My arm hurt, it felt as if it were being crushed. Why? There was a Kameron lying on it. I moved my arm and he opened his eyes.
"Did you get the license plate of the truck that hit me?" He moaned blearily.
"They've got Maki!" I shrieked, "and all my Pokeballs!"
That was enough to stir even the dead, if the dead loved their Pokemon enough. Kameron's hands went to his belt. "Mine too!" He shouted, staggering upright. "We've got to catch them!"
"How?" They had left nothing but a trail in the dirt. And how could we get our Pokemon back? That Kadabra was tough!
"Um," Kameron muttered, "they didn't get all our Pokemon…" He probbed the recumbent form of the Nidoran. "But I don't know what use he'll be."
The Nidoran woke and scrambled to its feet with a snarl. I grabbed the rope before it made a break for it. I dropped on my knees in front of him.
"They've stolen Maki," I explained to the snarling Nidoran. "He's your friend, isn't he?"
"Nid, Nid-o," he snapped.
"Do you think you could follow their trail?"
"You're not really asking the Nidoran for help are you? You know it's mad!"
"Shuddup," I muttered. "Nidoran, if you help us, we'll all be happy. I'll give you some special food and all."
"Nido, nidoran ran." He started sniffing around the footprints, and then trotted off, following them, nose to the ground.
"See," I said pointedly.
Kameron shrugged and jogged after us.
The trail led to a van, hidden so well in the trees that if the Nidoran had not suddenly growled, deep down in its throat, we would not even have known it were there. I grabbed Kameron's arm and pointed.
"You're Team Rocket," I commented. "What do you know about Loki and Freya?"
"Not a lot," Kameron replied. "They are fairly experienced thieves and have certainly done taken more Pokemon than me. I've never caught one," he muttered. "They're probably trying to cage Maki right now," he continued. "And once they manage that, they'll drive off."
"Not if I've got something to do with it," I said. "Nidoran, puncture the tyres with your horn."
"Nido?" It looked at me as though I were mad. Clearly it would rather puncture something else with its horn. Preferably something sapient.
Kameron rolled his eyes and drew a pocket knife from his pocket. He crept forth and slashed both the rear tyres.
"Nido-nidorann!" The Nidoran suddenly shrieked and threw itself at the back of the van. Its hooves and horn clanged against the metal with a screeching noise and a clunk.
I could hear muffled voices inside. "What was that?"
"MaKI!"
"Shuddup you little thing!"
"Loki, go and have a look."
"Why don't you?"
"Ack, men."
I removed the rope from the Nidoran's collar. "Go on Nidoran," I whispered, "do your stuff!"
The door clicked as it was opened. I heard someone step out of the van. Beside my leg, the Nidoran tensed.
"Go Nidorina, see what it is," I heard a feminine voice say.
"Nido. Nido-rinna," it shriekd.
"Nidoran!" The Nidoran bellowed.
The large female Nidorina whirled around the corner, and met the much smaller Nidoran head on. The Nidoran was moving faster, but the Nidorina had more bulk and the diving male hit, scratched with his horn, and then was thrown backwards.
"NIDO!" He screamed.
"NIDO!" She screamed back, blood trickling from her shoulder. She reared up, preparing to crush him with her front hooves. Nidoran rolled aside, leaping to his feet as she staggered slightly from the blow.
I beckoned to Kameron. We crept through the bushes closer to the van's door. The attractive woman was wandering towards the fight, somewhat cautiously.
Kameron smiled slyly at me, he had that eyes bulging look on his face again. Suddenly he threw himself at Freya, knocking her to the ground. She glared at him.
"Hey you're that little twerp, aren't you? The one that the boss fired because you were such a failure." She smiled. Kameron struggled with her, twisting her into a position so that she was face down whilst he crouched on her back.
"You stole my Butterfree," he hissed. "You stole my Cubone. I don't like that. I don't like that one bit."
Instead of hanging around to hear more, I wandered inside the door.
"Did you deal with it, Freya?" Loki asked. He was sitting facing a birdcage, within which Maki crouched, looking almost despondent. Maki despised being confined.
"It was just a pesky little Nidoran," I replied.
"Oh, that's alright then," he said, and then something registered. Loki whirled around. "You!" He yelled.
I smiled smugly. "Yep. Catch Maki!" I flicked a pin in the direction of the birdcage. Maki reached through the bars and caught it easily. "You can't steal my Pokemon and get away with it that easily," I said. "Why ever did you leave the Nidoran?"
"Why would we want a stupid Nidoran?" He replied. "They're as common as Pidgeys. But this little guy…" He had turned when I had thrown the pin at Maki, but turned back when I spoke to him again. His bright blue eyes seemed to bore into my skull. There came a click from behind him.
"Maki!" Maki shrieked, leaping from the cage and onto the table.
Loki whirled, and went for the Pokeball at his belt. I could not let him release Kadabra again, the psychic Pokemon was too strong for us.
"Maki, starblaze him now!" I shouted.
The ray leapt from Maki's forehead and straight into Loki's eyes. He dropped the ball and staggered back. Knowing I did not have much time, I darted across the room to the shelf on which sat five Pokeballs. I grabbed as many of them as I could hold.
"Go all of you!" I shouted.
"Vapore-on!"
"Cu-bone-bone!
"Freeee!"
"Seadraa!"
"Flare!"
"Maki-muRR!"
Having regained his vision and dropped his Pokeball, Loki stumbled backwards as six Pokemon menaced him. Even Kadabra could not take out that many. He pushed past me and sprinted through the door.
"Come on Freya," he panted, "let's get out of here, these kids are more trouble than they're worth!"
Kameron rolled off her. She slapped him across the face. "Damned kids!" She muttered and chased after Loki.
After a moment, Nidorina twisted free of Nidoran's grip on her heavily armoured throat and darted after them, calling "Nido, nidorina, rina!" ("Wait for me", is my guess). The Nidoran trotted after her a few steps then stopped and shook his head, and folded at the knees.
"Nido." He muttered.
"Nidoran return!" I cried, calling him into an empty Pokeball. I hoped the Nidorina had not hurt him too much, but she had probably poisoned him. If I didn't get him to a Pokecentre soon… I might lose him altogether.
"Kameron," I called. "We have to go into town now! I need an antidote!"
"Maki, maki-murr!" Maki called urgently, from back in the van. I hurried in there. He was trying to drag a bottle along in his paws. It was as big as he was. "Maki!"
I took it off him and looked at the label. "Thank you Maki," I whispered, gratefully. "Nidoran, come on out."
The Nidoran appeared on the table and rose its head weakly. "Nido," it groaned.
I approached it with the bottle. "Now, I'm not going to hurt you," I said. "I'm going to make you better." I poured a bit of the antidote onto a spoon and put it in front of his mouth. "Come on Spike, have a drink. You can do it!" I don't know why I had suddenly chosen to give him a nickname, it just sort of happened. It seemed right, as though he had finally proven himself. I think it was the fact that I had named him that made him respond. His purple tongue flicked out and lapped up the antidote. He then closed his eyes again.
"Maki," Maki said gently and bounced down beside him, licking his face gingerly.
I turned and smiled at Kameron. He smiled back wryly.
"Ok, I admit it, the Nidoran was worth training."
I allowed myself a smug smile.