Dwayne's Nidorino

**Dwayne's Nidorino** (Japanese: **ドゥエインのニドリーノ** *Douein's Nidorino*) is the tenth Pokémon that Dwayne captured during his travels in the Kanto region, and his eleventh overall.

## **New Era**

### **Indigo Challenge**

Nidorino was captured by Dwayne as a Nidoran at the Safari Zone at the outskirts of Fuchsia City. When Dwayne gets ready to toss a Safari Ball at Nidoran, he trips and alerts the Nidoran, who promptly attacks with Poison Sting, but Dwayne evades. However, Nidoran quickly follows up with Fury Attack and Horn Attack, but Dwayne successfully dodges on both occasions before finally catching Nidoran with the Safari Ball.

Shortly before Dwayne's first match at the Indigo Plateau Conference, he decides to bring in Nidoran to battle. Professor Oak is worried because Dwayne had never used Nidoran before, but Dwayne is confident in the Pokémon. Dwayne's battle on the Water field soon begins, and he starts off with Nidoran, while Darby uses an Exeggutor. Nidoran jumps into the pool, but Exeggutor uses Psychic to create a whirlpool, revealing Nidoran's hiding space. Darby then orders an Egg Bomb, knocking Nidoran into the whirlpool and preventing him from using any attacks. Dwayne tries to recall Nidoran, but the whirlpool prevents him from doing so. Suddenly, Nidoran escapes from the vortex, and Dwayne orders him to use Double Kick on Exeggutor's leaves, stopping its attacks. Hanging on tightly, Nidoran uses Leer to decrease Exeggutor's defenses, and his Peck attack knocks it out. As he stands triumphant over Exeggutor, Nidoran suddenly evolves into Nidorino.

Darby, still confident, sends out his second Pokémon, a Staryu. Staryu uses Teleport to dodge Nidorino's Venoshock, but Nidorino manages to slow it down with Peck, and then knocks Staryu out with Double Kick. Darby remains undaunted as he sends out his last Pokémon, a Crobat. Crobat manages to evade Nidorino's attacks, dealing a great amount of damage in the process with X-Scissor. Dwayne then orders Nidorino to use Leer, decreasing Crobat's defenses, followed by Double Kick. Nidorino's two shots hits Crobat dead-on, knocking it out and winning Dwayne his first Indigo League victory. Darby is astounded by his defeat, with the commentator confirming that Dwayne successfully used only one Pokémon for the entire match. Jade watches on in shock as Dwayne jumps around, overexcited by his first win, and hugs his newly-evolved Nidorino, thanking him for winning the match.

## **Personality and Characteristics**

Before his capture, Nidorino was quite aggressive, wildly attacking Dwayne after realizing that the young Trainer was looking to capture him, but despite his best efforts, Dwayne successfully caught the Poison-type Pokémon. However, upon being caught, Nidorino mellowed out significantly and became a very modest and quiet Pokémon.

In battle, Nidorino is quite determined, not giving up against Darby despite, at face value, being the underdog against all three of his Pokémon. Nidorino was a very modest victor, happily hugging his Trainer, but not waving to the crowd or gloating at Darby. Despite being seen as the underdog due to the fact Nidorino had never battled before, his dorment power was shown, when he single-handedly earned Dwayne his first victory at the Indigo Plateau Conference by sweeping Darby's entire team.