I loved being a Blaziken.

To be able to have so much power, so much authority…

I ruled this part of the wild. I had complete control. If any challenged me for my Alpha position, I easily beat them. I was able to walk, run, attack like a raptor, and was always completely in control, always adamant. Trainers walked past, some challenged me, but I easily beat their Pokemon.

One day however, all of that was changed.

I was only 15, easily a teenager in human terms. I was young enough to be caught and trained, young enough to mate. However, I rejected such concepts. I was my own Pokemon, and nothing could ever change that.

Or so I thought.

A young Pokemon Trainer came up to me. I was relaxing in my little hammock, and could see him easily through one half-shut eye, though he thought he was sneaking up on me. I decided I would like the look on his face when I suddenly sprang to life, so I pretended to be asleep.

"Look Ziken, she hasn't seen us yet…" he whispered to a Pokemon I couldn't see. I had the sudden impression that someone was on my other side. I turned over.

A fully grown male Blaziken was standing right there, looking straight at me. It didn't growl, nor attack, nothing. Just stood, eyeing me.

"Yeah, she's a beauty, isn't she Ziken?" the boy whispered. "Alright, go for it."

I jumped up and landed on top of a tree branch I had landed on so many times ago. The boy looked stricken, the Blaziken as if this were a chase, he the predator and I the prey.

Nobody makes me the prey, I thought angrily, and unleashed a powerful Flamethrower. A local Zigzagoon family ran for cover.

"Look at that power," the boy breathed. "Something for kids to inherit."

I finally got it, and ran for my life. No way was some overly enthusiastic tame Blaziken making me his mate!!!

The Blaziken was following, so I leaped onto a ledge on a cliff that only I knew was there. I moved a boulder and went inside the small cave, moving the boulder back as the Blaziken jumped up after me.

I turned around and crawled through the cave, into a tight-fitting tunnel, at least for me. Teen Blaziken aren't meant to go through such a small hole in the ground!! But if I wanted to remain free, I had no choice. I continued crawling, and found myself in my private little secluded area, still underground. Other Pokemon knew of this larger, roomier cave, as there was a passageway to the surface, but only I knew of the passageway to the ledge. I took a slate of rock and pushed it into the passageway I had just come through. I took another and kept piling them up, stuffed into the hole, until it was completely filled right to the top. So what if the Blaziken had found that tiny cave behind the so-out-of-place boulder? So what if he had found the tiny little hole? If he tried to follow it, he'd get stuck, and besides, he'd probably think it belonged to some small group of Rattata or something. I shook my head, amused. Tame Pokemon have absolutely no idea how things work out here in the wild. And anyway, if he managed to get to this side of the tiny tunnel, he'd meet a dead-end. And you can't back up in that tunnel, unless you can turn around. I should know; I've tried.

I relaxed, closing up the passageway to the surface for now. I hoped that would cut off my scent. Males in the mating season can become extremely desperate, and if it came to that, I was confident I could defeat him. I was dominant; I was Alpha, over all local Pokemon!! How could that make me weaker??

A couple hours later I awoke. A strange scent reached my nose, and I was instantly up and alert. Once I was alert, I became aware of a strangled creature's desperate cries. They were coming from the hole, the passageway to the ledge.

My memory came back in a rush. No way was he that stupid, I thought, but all the same removed the slates.

The eyes of a weak, saddened face of a Blaziken met mine.

"So you were that stupid!!" I cried aloud, laughing. "You got stuck!! I almost can't believe what I'm seeing!! If I'm slimmer than you and can hardly make it through, what made you think you could get all the way –"

My overconfidence was met with a strangled cry of anger. He tried to haul his way out, and my laughter was cut off as I saw that he had widened the tunnel!!

Oh great. Hoenn, forgive me, I'm stupid. I ran over to the wider passageway to the surface, and crawled through, jumping out. I ran for the mountains in the distance, hoping that I would make it to the next human city before that overly desperate excuse for a Blaziken pulled himself free.

I heard a roar of triumph behind me, and ran straight for the river, hoping he'd lose my scent. I waded upstream, touching every plant I could reach, and then ducked below them all to go the opposite way, not touching any plants downstream. I had picked up this trick from the local pack of Mightyena.

Hours later, I finally pulled myself free of the river, a couple miles out of my territory, sodden and soaked to the bones. I dragged my shivering self toward an abandoned den, or as far as I could smell. I hid under it, hoping the cold would go away and wondering if this was really all worth it.