Yeah, so, this story was last updated on February 4, 2017. Almost 6 years ago. Huh.

As the days went on, the rivalry between Dragonite and Charizard increased. Dragonite was usually quite chill (ironic, consider his 4x weakness) but he become noticeably more aggressive around the fire type.

"Sweetheart, can't you see that this rivalry between you and Charizard is getting out of hand?" Dragonite's mate said as she was holding her three Dratini babies. "You used to be so happy, but in the past few days, you've seemed to become more irritable at the most ridiculous things."

Dragonite had his hands behind his back and looked at his mate who was over a foot shorter than he was and he took two of his children from her to gently pat their backs with affection. "I agree. It's kinda silly, but I guess it's just a male thing. I'll never stop loving you, babies." He brought his mate in for a hug and they shared a tender moment. He seriously wondered just what Charizard was doing.

Charizard was flying off the coast of Pallet Town and saw his trainer, Ash, approaching. He unleashed an affectionate flamethrower at his trainer while a girl with orange hair and a guy with tan skin and spikey brown hair gasped as Ash was incinerated to a crisp, but considering this was an anime, he recovered as if it was nothing.

"Charizard, it's good to see you again!" Ash said as he hugged the pseudo-dragon's neck. "What have you been doing lately as a Postmon? Have you been helping everyone with their stuff?"

"Of course, Ash! I'm just waiting for the right time for there to be a challenge against my rival, Dragonite. He is so pathetic, trying to take me on? Does he really need to prove that he's that special or something?" (A.N. yes, in this fic's AU, Charizard can speak like Meowth. Also this story doesn't follow the anime perfectly in regards to time since technically, Charizard evolved in the anime on May 28, 1998, and it's late August of 1997 in this story.)

"Mom has told me over the phone that you're even grumpier than usual," chuckled Ash. "I just want you to know that even if someone does manage to be better than you, you're still awesome! You've been awesome since you were a cute little Charmander!"

Charizard sweat-dropped, causing a sizzle on his hot skin. "Ash, I was so naive then as a Charmander. That felt like ages ago even though I've evolved just a few short months ago."

"You've gone through a lot of changes for the better, Charizard, and I'm glad to see that you've still got deep inside of you the heart of that adorable Charmander," Ash commented as he poked Charizard's heart. Charizard was being embarrassed. He was about to open his mouth and comment on his trainer's sappiness, but heavy whooshing sounds were heard. It belonged to Dragonite.

"Even though we are rivals," Dragonite said, "I'm sincerely happy that you have a trainer who loves you." He was being serious; Dragonite was kinda arrogant at times, but he wasn't lacking in empathy and did think it was quite sweet to see the apparent love between the Pokemon and human.

"You..." Ash began. "You're huge!"

"A lot larger than a typical Dragonite!" Brock said. "Most are never taller than 8 feet."

"How many Dragonites have you come across?" Dragonite chuckled as he rubbed Brock's head. Brock didn't know whether to feel fear or not since this creature that was even larger than Lt. Surge was trying to play friendly with him. "You." He pointed at Ash. "Can you come up with some challenges for him and me to compete with?"

"Uh..." Ash hesitated, not entirely sure what to say. "I guess? What do you wanna measure?"

"Speed. We gotta track who's the fastest as well as who's the strongest," Charizard said. "I was able to get 22 people in 15 minutes, while he got only 17, so it should be proof that I'm the faster one, but he doesn't seem satisfied with this. So I guess we're gonna have to come up with different ways to see how fast we are. Like how fast it takes to fly from two places."

"Wow, Ash, I'm so impressed that your Charizard can speak!" Prof. Oak said as he showed up out of nowhere and eating a chocolate Ice cream. "Okay, I'm bored and want to take a break from the lab, as the assistants are kinda getting annoying. Let's get started, yeah?"

Dragonite cheered and jumped up and down, causing the ground to shake pretty hard.

"He's got me beat on who can make a better earthquake," Charizard confessed.

"Watch it, flame tail, let's not get things messier than they need to be," Dragonite warned. "But first..." He took to the sky and he went to his cave and said to his mate, "I want you guys to watch me. It's okay, the humans talk a lot, but they aren't gonna hurt us, and I'll make sure none of you get captured."

"Yay! Humans!" cheered a Dratini baby. He took two of them while his mate took the other and they flew back to Pallet Town.

"You got your family with you, I got mine," Dragonite told the other. "Let's begin."