Static Flame
Chapter 1
The Beginning
My name is Quil. I am a Quilava, one example of a varied race known as Pokemon. On our world, we are frequently captured by humans called trainers. To some we are playmates, to others we are a mystery to be explored, some use us for battles, some even use us as tools for evil.
I've seen the best and worst. My life has been chaotic at times, but I've always tried to do what I can to make things better.
As a young Cyndiquil, I was raised by a good trainer. He treated all of us (I was not his only pokemon) with kindness and we tried to be our best for him. It was one of the happiest times of my life. But then, I was taken from him.
I had been stolen by one of the many infamous groups which used pokemon for their own sinister ends. There was Team Rocket, which would do anything for money. Then there were the misguided teams Aqua and Magma; mirror images of each other who wanted to make the world a better place, but were going the wrong way about doing so. In the far-off land of Orre, Team Snagem came up with ingenious ways to steal pokemon while Cipher plotted world domination with us as their weapons.
Which of these criminal organizations had me doesn't matter, they are so much alike. What does matter is that I refused to be used by such an evil group. I released myself from their service by breaking the hinge at the back of my capture device, the poke ball and escaped. At this point in my life I decided I would help other pokemon with cruel trainers by releasing them from captivity.
One of these bad trainers became my early rival. I can't remember his name, but I remember that he frequently tried to capture me only to lose the pokemon he had. I always let him keep one - his starter Eevee – in hope that something in him would improve. Eventually the trainer realized that if he kept losing to a wild pokemon, then he must be doing something wrong. He became a much better person because of our rivalry.
During that feud I gained enough battle experience to transform into my next stage. Pokemon evolution is a kind of metamorphosis. For my species the line is Cyndiquil-Quilava-Typhlosion. Evolution tends to make a pokemon stronger, although there are powerful pokemon which don't evolve at all.
I eventually decided to move on with my life. I started to wander the land, exploring for the fun of it. It was at this time that I met my new rival. Magma, who was a Magmar, was a malicious troublemaker, though not the "destroy the world" type (at least, that was what I thought). From what I gathered, he was looking for a new home after being banished from his old one. Unfortunately for the people who happened to be around him, Magmar usually make the environment more suited to them, instead of the other way around. For Magma, this meant turning the area into a burning wasteland. He never stayed long though, usually it was just long enough for me to stumble across the devastation and be blamed for it, often by Magma himself. By chance or fate our paths seldom strayed far and we both eventually reached an area far from any human civilization.
I didn't realize it even then but my rivalry with Magma, and an unknowable force in that area, would shape my destiny in ways I couldn't imagine.