Rodney's Curse

Chp. 2

Why did he have a headache all of the sudden? It was as if a gloomy cloud suddenly appeared above Rodney's head, making it hard for him to concentrate. He sat underneath a tree and took in some breaths. He hoped that he wasn't getting a migraine.

He heard flapping from above him. Curious, he looked up to see that three pidgey had decided to rest on the nearby branches. They were normally docile, so Rodney didn't think anything of it. He laid back in order to soak in the afternoon sun. He should be arriving at Saffron soon. Once he got over this sudden ache, he would continue onward.

The flapping returned, this time louder than before. Rodney opened his eyes to look. The pidgey had left the tree in order to fly around him like a halo of birds. Rodney could only watch in fascination. What was going on?

The pidgey circled around him faster and faster. Rodney realized too late what they were doing. This was a start of an attack!

Powerful wind roughly picked him off the ground. Rodney cried out for help. The twister tore through his body like knives made out of air. He spun around in his unwanted flight before landing painfully on his stomach. But the pidgey weren't done with him. They hurled themselves against his head.

He needed to do something before their Tackle attacks knocked him unconscious.

"Dragonair! Thunderbolt," he hurled the Pokeball. As soon as the blue dragon appeared, its horns began to spark with electricity.

However, the blast of lightning hit Rodney instead of the pidgey. Rodney no longer cared about his headache now that his whole body was in pain.

"Dragonair! Watch where you're aiming your attack!" he said angrily.

Pause. The silence from his father's pokemon made Rodney nervous. The dragonair was as frozen as a statue, not showing any signs that it was going to fight the pidgey anytime soon.

"Dragonair?"

As soon as Rodney spoke, another bolt of lightning aimed his way. He barely managed to dodge the attack. Dragonair flew towards him with hate in its eyes.

Rodney didn't have time to question what was happening. He turned tail and ran. The pidgey were no longer the threat. Now it was his own father's partner trying to kill him.

The boy ran as fast as he could. Dragonair blew flames out of its mouth. Rodney ducked, but some of the fire caught onto his hair, burning it. Rodney tripped inside a hole big enough for his body. Fortunately, to the dragonair it looked like he had disappeared. The pokemon flew over him without noticing he was right under it.

Once it was gone, Rodney took those precious moments to catch his breath. What made this hole anyway?

"Dig?"

He turned to see a diglett popping out of the ground. It smiled at him. Rodney smiled back. Finally there was a pokemon that wasn't completely insane. A few more diglett popped out, then a few more. Soon Rodney was surrounded by smiling ground pokemon.

It was getting harder to keep his grin up. Suddenly Rodney didn't feel too good about this. The digletts' smiles seemed...sinister now that he got a closer look.

They crawled back underground. An earthquake tremored beneath his feet. The ground he stood on caved in, causing him to fall down. He cried out. The diglett moved the earth upward. It was like the ground itself tackled him. Rodney flew into the air until he was out of the hole.

He staggered onto his feet. He needed to get out of here. He needed to find a normal human being, because right now all the pokemon were nuts.

Rodney ran and didn't stop until he reached Saffron City. Leaning onto the nearest building, he struggled to catch his breath. He was bruised, battered and sweaty: not exactly what he imagined his first day as a trainer would be like.

"Vap?"

A vaporeon had decided to approach him. It tilted its head in confusion. From the small bow tied around its neck, Rodney could safely assumed that it belonged to somebody, and had decided to run from its trainer.

Rodney wanted to greet it, but he was still panting. It was hard to say anything right now.

After several seconds, his heart finally started to slow down.

"It's dangerous out there, Vaporeon," he told it, "The wild pokemon attacked me for now reason."

Its black/blue eyes narrowed at him in a sudden change of expression. The water fox growled as if Rodney said something to offend it. Rodney backed away.

"What's wrong?"

A blue beam of energy formed in its mouth, then emitted a blast of ice power. Rodney dodged it and the beam hit the building, turning the area into a big block of ice.

Rodney gaped in horror. That could've been him!

He ran off. The vaporeon chased after him. Passerbys stared. They were too shock at the strange site to even move, much less try and help Rodney.

The boy ducked into the alleyway. Like Dragonair, the vaporeon rushed passed him without a second thought to where he'd gone.

He wasn't safe in the city either. Rodney had to find help as quickly as he could. The boy rushed to his grandmother's house without a second thought. He didn't dare to stop and talk to anyone, in case they started to attack too.

Finally, he found his grandmother's home. It was a modest little old house situated between two large buildings. Rodney knocked at the door.

"Oh, Rodney dear. You're a little late. But I forgive you, just like I forgave your father. That's a story for another day. Now come on in. And why are you bleeding? Oh well, I'll get you some medicine and some bandages. I was in nursing school, you know? Before I got kicked out. But that's a story for another day. So come on in and have some tea. I'll show you your pokemon later."