Disclaimer: The characters in this fic are all life-sized, self-animated puppets. They aren't actually Aoyama Goshou's characters, because I don't own anything Aoyama Goshou does. I mean, would I do a thing like stowing away on a boat to get to Japan so I could climb into Goshou-sensei's apartment while he was out for supper and steal his characters and then get chased by the police but fortunately escape in a helicopter before the situation became really dangerous?

Of course not ...

Kaitou Kid was cornered, quite literally. It was an uncomfortable corner, too; his victim had extremely unfortunate taste when it came to interior decoration. It involved (but was in no wise limited to) panelling molded in the shape of ... but such things are best forgotten. Let us return to the subject at hand.

Kaitou Kid was cornered. Not two yards in front of him, coldly quashing all hope of escape in that direction, the entire Kaitou 1412 Taskforce formed a human wall. A human wall that, from the growling, triumphant sound coming from its collective throat, bore him an immense grudge, perhaps because of the number of times he had made it look like an utter fool.

Above his head, a metal cage was being lowered from the ceiling (which was just as unfortunate as the walls). Perched on its titanium roof were several dozen members of the Kaitou 1903 Taskforce. (Was that even legal? Wasn't a kaitou entitled to have his own personal Taskforce to chase him around, and not a bunch of bothersome strangers?)

Escape was impossible.

Capture was immenent.

Unless ...

"Wait!" commanded Kid.

The advancing Taskforce halted, cowed by the raw authority in the kaitou's voice. The hysterical owner of the jewel which now resided in Kid's waitscoat pocket stopped mid-shriek. Even the cage stopped its descent.

With unmitigated dignity and menace, Kid put a hand into the breast of his white jacket and withdrew is, his gloved fingers clasped around something spherical and red. He lifted it above his head, grinning maniacally.

The Taskforce realized the danger danger too late. The kaitou brought his raised hand down in a sweeping motion.

"Pikachu!" shouted Kaitou Kid. "I choose you!"

The next day headlines all over Japan screamed the news: KID THWARTS TASKFORCE AGAIN! said one, and added underneath: Nakamori defeated by Pokemon; police baffled by Kid's new weapon.

Aoko was not happy.

A/N: Ummmm ... do I have to do penance for this one?

On a linguistical note, my handy-dandy-online-translator tells me that "eiketsu" means "great man; hero; master mind", and as I couldn't find the Japanese for "Pokemon Trainer" (is there a Japanese for that, or is it just "Pokemon toreenaa"?) I made do with what I could find.

Ja ne!