Kanto Region, Cinnabar Island…

There are many things Cinnabar Island is known for. Thanks to its tropical weather, this island has become one of the major touristic spots in the Kanto region, and the local residents had pride not only in the amount of hotels, but also the famous Pokémon Research Lab, where many important discoveries were studied, and even ancient fossils of Pokémon were restored and brought back to life.

Most interestingly, however, Cinnabar Island was the home of one of the region's strongest Gym Leaders. It was Blaine, better known as the "Hotheaded Quiz Master", or to a lesser extent "The first Fire Master of the new era", a title he had earned with grand achievements.

Blaine's story was well known in the island: he had begun his journey in the time before the Oak era, when the world was a lot more dangerous and Pokémon a log more aggressive. Even reaching the Pokémon League itself was a tough road. And not just for collecting Gym Badges; that was the easy part, actually. No, the real trial came when crossing the infamous Victory Road: a dark and confusing cavern across the mountains, full of tunnels and dangers, as well as powerful Pokémon. It was very easy to get lost in that treacherous path; very few trainers were able to cross it and safely reach the Indigo Plateau (which probably was one of the reasons those leagues were more competitive). During his first journey, Blaine would experience in the flesh that the Victory Road was no joke: he spent an entire month lost in those mountains, day after day fighting to survive and not to get killed by the amount of high-leveled Onix lurking around every corner. After several days almost running out of food and water, Blaine was ready to give up hope. Then, he saw it… a large and bright flame, and that was the last thing he recalled before losing consciousness.

After coming to, Blaine was outside the cave, not realizing how he had gotten there. Later on he learned that hi savior had been none other than the Legendary Fire Bird Pokémon, Moltres. Blaine had no idea about why that majestic and powerful bird saved him, but he didn't care anymore. He had been so fascinated, he decided to become a Fire-type Pokémon trainer.

The path was undoubtedly hard; in the years prior to Oak's era, Fire-types were quite feared. Very few trainers ventured to catch one of these. Fire was considered a dangerous and destructive power, which was only worsened by stories about entire cities set on fire by some rogue Magmortar out of control.

But things changed, in no small part thanks to Blaine, who took it upon himself to capture several different Fire-types, not just for training, but also for researching. At first, people criticized and feared him, but slowly, some people began to hear him out. Blaine managed to make himself of a certain reputation; his research eventually proved that Fire-type Pokémon were not as dangerous as people made them out to be, and they were in fact vital to keep the world's natural balance. Blaine's influence was so great, it inspired many other trainers to train their own Fire-types, and the popularity increased that even some of those once feared species became one of the three standard choices for rookie trainers.

A long time had passed since then; very few would have imagined that such a successful trainer would decide to spend the rest of his days in the peaceful Cinnabar Island. Approaching his 69 years of age, he had stopped traveling to dedicate his time to research, while working in parallel as the local Gym Leader. Anyone would think that after a life of excitement and adventure, peace and quiet would be extremely boring. Blaine however disagreed: there was one detail making his life more interesting, which was…

"Grandpa, I'm home!"

A red-haired teenager entered Blaine's lab in a hurry. Her name was Alish, and she was none other than the Gym Leader's granddaughter.

"Ali! Right on time!" The leader watched his granddaughter with a large smile, before asking her a surprise question. "What is that given one, you'll have either two or none?"

"Hmmm… Let's see… got it! A choice!"

"Well, that was fast. I thought it'd take you longer."

"Come on, grandpa, you've been asking me riddles since I was four. You can't surprise me."

Alish seemed quite proud of herself. If there was anything Blaine liked as much as Fire-type Pokémon, it would be asking and solving riddles. Whenever he had free time he'd always come up with some new ones, and his granddaughter was used to it. Alish then remembered why she had come in the first place.

"But now's not the time for that. I found a trainer who says he wants to come challenge your gym."

"Did he look strong?" Blaine asked.

"I'm not sure. I found him beating some other trainers at the beachside, and he asked for directions to your gym. You better get ready, he's bound to arrive soon enough."

Blaine just smiled as he prepared his Pokémon for the match. No doubt, his granddaughter certainly made his life a lot livelier. Just like him, Alish adored Fire-types, and in fact she aspired to inherit the Cinnabar Gym once Blaine decided to finally retire from fighting for good (of course, he wasn't planning on doing that for at least a few more years). While Ali still didn't have her own Pokémon, Blaine could see she had that fiery spirit and love for Fire-types as him. Plus, she also had an edge many others lacked…

"Hey Grandpa… maybe you should use Growlithe for this fight."

"Growlithe?"

"I was talking to him yesterday. Says he's been bored as hell since you haven't brought him to fight for the past month. And your Magcargo is really tired after that match yesterday."

"You're right." Blaine nodded. "Well, I suppose Growlithe could use some exercise."

Alish had a wonderful gift, the gift to communicate with every single Fire-type Pokémon. This wasn't too strange; she had been born in the Bloodliner Baby Boom generation during the past one and a half decade. Her abilities were amazing. At first, Blaine thought that she was just playing around when she told him she could talk and understand Pokémon, but everything changed when, at age six, she had a very strange fever. Her body temperature all of a sudden raised up, but strangely enough she wasn't feeling ill at all. Upon closer examination, the Gym Leader discovered that her daughter was not sick; rather, she was holding back an Overheat attack, as he recognized the reaction very similar, if not the same, to many of his Pokémon when they used said attack. From there on out, he realized his granddaughter's true nature: she was a Fire Heart Bloodliner. It goes without saying that Blaine was really surprised, since from the very scarce knowledge he had about bloodliners, he would have expected Alish to start with a weaker attack like Ember, not something as powerful as Overheat. Then again, it wasn't like he knew much about bloodliners in general to begin with.

Of course, they had to keep her powers hidden from other people in the Island. Many people still felt great animosity towards bloodliners, founded mostly in fear and in not knowing much about them, so Blaine had as priority to keep his granddaughter safe. He didn't understand why there was so much hate; after all, those abilities were amazing. He'd do anything to have his daughter's ability to talk to Pokémon and understand them perfectly. As a matter of fact, thanks to Ali, the scientist had done many advances in his research, which otherwise wouldn't have been possible without direct word from his Pokémon themselves.

Meanwhile, the girl was making a huge effort to keep her powers hidden, although she still struggled with that. Every time she became excited or angry, her temperature would raise and it would trigger an Overheat. They had to be careful not to do that in public, and that was no easy feat.

After a short preparation, Blaine was at the battlefield waiting for his challenge, while Alish stood at the side of the arena to act as referee (and have the best place to watch the battle). They had already done some research about the challenger: apparently he was coming for his fourth badge. The leader was a little surprised at this; usually trainers coming to challenge him would on average fight for a sixth or seventh badge. Due to his strength, very few rookie trainers were brave enough to challenge him for a first badge, maybe just one or two per year.

His thoughts were interrupted when someone entered the Gym. The guy was a very tall and athletic young man wearing an orange vest and a red bandanna over his head, and had a very arrogant expression in his face.

"So this is the local gym that girl was talking about?" His glance turned towards the leader, whom he looked from head to toe, before smirking. "You're the leader, old man? This is gonna be easy. Prepare yourself, gramps, you're gonna face the great Raymond!"

"You better back up those words with actions, boy." The leader pulled out his Pokéball. Alish rolled her eyes at the challenger's attitude, but she had to do her job.

"This will be an official battle between the Gym Leader, Blaine, and the challenger, Raymond! Each of you can use up to three Pokémon and the battle will end when one of you has no more Pokémon able to battle. In addition, neither the challenger nor the leader are allowed to substitute Pokémon."

"You don't know what you're up against, old man." Raymond grinned as he pulled out his first Pokéball. "Go get him, Machoke!"

"Machoke!" The Fighting-type appeared on the field, and with the same arrogant attitude as his trainer began flexing his muscles.

"Interesting. If that's the case, go, Growlithe!"

Blaine let out his small fire puppy, who despite his size seemed quite confident. Raymond stared at him: he looked smaller than average, and was unevolved on top of that. What the hell was he thinking?"

"You're gonna face me with a weak Growlithe? Don't make me laugh, old man! Machoke, let's get this over with fast, use Rock Tomb!"

The muscular Pokémon summoned a large amount of rocks around himself and threw them with full intention to bury his opponent. Growlithe however managed to dodge them by running and nimbly jumping from side to side, even without his trainer giving any commands. Blaine knew him well: he might be small, but he packed a lot of power. It was time to show it off.

"Growlithe, use Flame Charge!"

The small canine began running at full speed engulfed in flames, ramming on his rival's chest. Machoke staggered back and tried to get a hold of him, but Growlithe jumped backwards and dodged his adversary again.

"Keep up with that Flame Charge!" Blaine called out. "Show him what we're made of!"

Once again, Growlithe charged at Machoke, this time much faster than before thanks to the additional effect, repeating the pattern one, two, three, four more times, without giving Machoke any time to counterattack or dodge.

"Hold still! How the heck does that Growlithe move so fast?!"

Raymond clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in anger when seeing Growlithe's speed. His attacks were fast and accurate, too much for his taste, and he was already moving pretty fast at the beginning. Having used Flame Charge five times in a row his speed had just gone up over and over, and they could barely keep up with his movements. The challenger was starting to boil in rage.

"Don't think you've beaten me yet, old geezer! Karate Chop! Don't let him get away!"

Machoke obliged and tried to hit with everything he had, but Growlithe dodged easily and countered with his Flame Charges, just making Raymond even angrier. So far he hadn't been able to land a single hit. Blaine gazed at his rival; he felt a little disappointed to be honest. He was expecting more of him.

"There has to be some trick here! My Pokémon is evolved, he should be stronger!" Raymond protested in anger. If that wasn't enough, he could hear the Gym Leader snickering at this statement. "What's so funny?!"

"You should know that already. Even unevolved, my Growlithe is at a higher level than your Machoke. I haven't evolved him simply because he doesn't want to do so yet. Not that he actually needs it, as you can see."

"Shut up! Machoke, use Rock Tomb!"

"Counter with Flamethrower, Growlithe!"

Machoke once again raised the pile of stones, but thanks to his superior speed, Growlithe was able to launch his attack first. The fire stream quickly engulfed Machoke, leaving him completely charred and causing him to drop on the floor face first.

"Machoke is unable to battle! Growlithe is the winner!" Alish declared, seeing with great satisfaction his opponent's shocked expression, Raymond returned his Pokémon, still in total disbelief at that defeat.

"Impossible! How the hell did he defeat my Machoke?!"

"Choosing a Pokémon is more than just making a choice. You need wisdom to win a battle."

"Aw, shut up, you old duff! My next Pokémon will stomp on your little Growlithe!" Seeing that Blaine's expression didn't change, Raymond pulled out his next Pokéball. "Go, Donphan!"

"Donphan!" The small Ground-type elephant stomped on the ground and challenged his opponent raising his trunk. The leader seemed a little impressed at his new opponent.

"Interesting. A Pokémon native to Johto, how did you get it?"

"Mind your own business, gramps," Raymond rudely replied. "Donphan, use Rollout!"

Donphan turned himself into a living steamroller, going after Growlithe at full speed. The puppy had no problems in evading the rolling Donphan, but Blaine was starting to get tired of the challenger's bad attitude, so he decided it was time to teach him a lesson.

'No matter how fast he is, he's not getting away from this. My Donphan's Rollout is unstoppable,' Raymond thought. He was ready to see the look on his face, but to his surprise, Blaine remained calm. Too calm for his taste.

"Growlithe, escape using Dig!"

"Grow!"

Said and done, the fire canine dove into the ground, opening a hole to dodge the Rollout. This briefly caught Raymond off-guard, but then he grinned: this could be just what he needed.

"You fool of an old man! Now all it takes to finish this round is a single Earthquake attack!" He could already taste his victory. But Raymond was surprised to see that, instead of using Earthquake, Donphan just keep on rolling around the field, seemingly out of control. "What the heck are you doing, Donphan?! Use Earthquake!"

"How sad," Blaine said. "That Rollout attack is pretty powerful, but it seems like your Donphan still doesn't know how to control itself while rolling at that speed. I think it'll keep going until it gets tired or crashes into something, whatever happens first."

"This cannot be!" Raymond was fuming in anger, even more because Blaine made him look like a fool by showing off that he knew more about his Pokémon than he did himself.

"This has been fun, but I think it's time to end this now," said Blaine. "Growlithe, please help it stop!"

And by "help it stop", obviously he meant that he had to wait until Donphan passed above him, and right on that moment hitting him hard from below, sending him flying and landing on his back, now having troubles in getting back on his feet. Now it was time to finish this round.

"Use Fire Spin!" Blaine commanded.

Growlithe jumped high and let out a powerful spiraling fire stream, which quickly surrounded Donphan turning into a massive fire tornado, leaving his opponent trapped and unable to escape.

"Donphan! Get the hell out of there!" Raymond shouted.

Growlithe's Fire Spin it could basically leave the opponent trapped inside to suffocate inside the flaming tornado. In fact, it was so strong that most opponents were unable to do anything to free themselves. Many considered it a very broken and unfair attack, and even Blaine himself didn't like using it because it was like condemning his opponent to a very slow and tortuous death, but considering how rude this guy had been since he arrived, he saw no reason to keep wearing the kiddie gloves.

"There's got to be a way to get out of there!"

"Perhaps your Donphan could simply roll its way out of there?" Blaine chuckled at the bad pun, while Raymond just got angrier. Better for him that way, the angrier he got, the more prone to make mistakes he'd be.

Meanwhile, Alish watched the fight in clear amusement. Even in battle, her grandfather wouldn't miss a chance for a good joke or a riddle, if possible. She really admired him; someday she hoped she'd be as good of a trainer as he was. She had worked hard for it: she had studied Fire-types in depth, from their usual habits to their way of evolving. And this was much easier when you could communicate fluently with them. She couldn't wait to become a trainer, just three more months to go and she'd be able to go on a journey on his own, to become the greatest Fire Pokémon Master and catch every single Fire-type Pokémon in the world.

Back on the battle, Blaine's Growlithe ceased his attack upon seeing Donphan couldn't breathe anymore and had lost consciousness. A little more and he could have potentially killed him by asphyxia. Alish declared Donphan was no longer able to battle, and Raymond wasn't happy with that.

"You damn old man! How could you beat my Donphan so easily?!"

"Give up yet, kid?" Blaine was getting tired of this encounter, his opponent had been a major let down, both in skill and attitude. "You have only one Pokémon left."

"The hell I have! I'm the great Raymond! No old geezer is going to beat me!" The trainer grabbed not one, but three Pokéballs at once. "Everyone, come out and finish off that damn dog!"

The Gym Leader and his granddaughter were surprised to see the challenger summoning three Pokémon at once: a Golem, a Pinsir and a Venomoth. To hell with the badge, at the time, all he wanted was to deliver a good beating to that Growlithe.

"Hey, you're breaking the rules!" shouted Alish. "You're disqualified!"

The Gym Leader, meanwhile, just facepalmed at this attitude. What a sore loser. Nonetheless, Blaine wouldn't let this guy intimidate him. The best he could do was giving him a very hard and burning lesson of humility, the old fashioned way… which meant using his best attacks.

"Growlithe, no need to hold back anymore. Give them all you have."

Growlithe was more than happy to obey Blaine's command. Venomoth and Pinsir were piece of cake thanks to the type advantage, both of them falling to a single Flamethrower. Golem barely was a bit more of a match, but nothing that a good powerful Fire Spin couldn't handle. In matter of seconds, the three Pokémon lied charred on the floor, and Growlithe roared in triumph in front of his master, very proud of himself.

"The challenger has no Pokémon left, and he's been disqualified for breaking the rules by using several Pokémon at once!" Alish declared. "Victory is for the Gym Leader!"

"I… can't… believe it…"

Raymond was left with his mouth agape. Falling to his knees, he remained in that position for a few good seconds, until he finally came to and returned his fallen Pokémon, and left the gym running without uttering a single word. He hadn't even left when Blaine began chuckling and patted his Growlithe for a job well done. His granddaughter then approached him.

"Sorry, grandpa." She apologized. "I think I overestimated that guy. Next time I hope I can find someone who can give you a good fight."

"It's OK, Ali. Say, do you know what hasn't been, it should be, but when it finally is, it won't be anymore?" Once again, the leader surprised his granddaughter with another riddle. She sighed in resignation.

"Come on, grandpa. Get serious."

Blaine sighed. "It's all because of the Pokémon League Federation. If only they'd let me continue with my hidden gym…" Blaine recalled his old times, they were so exciting. "Only really good trainers could find it."

"Grandpa, we both know having the gym inside an active volcano was completely insane," she said. "What would you do is one of the opponent's Pokémon fell into the lava?"

Obviously, many trainers complained about Blaine's old place; more than one almost lost a Pokémon in the hot lava. Not to mention having hidden the entrance in the hot springs: how many misunderstandings he caused with that? Even so, those old times… he couldn't deny those were fond memories.

"Grow, grow." Growlithe approached Ali, who smiled and began petting him.

"Well, at least Growlithe says he had fun during this fight," she said. "He says thank you for letting him fight today."

"That makes everything well worth it."

Both of them started chuckling. Blaine couldn't help but feel a tinge of nostalgia upon seeing his granddaughter, since she was the spitting image of his daughter, Yakimono. A cruel irony: Blaine felt very proud of her when she decided to move to Seafoam Islands to settle down and form her own family. Unfortunately, her happiness was short-lived: a terrible fire, the cause of which was still unknown, destroyed the house. All he knew was that little 3-year-old Ali was the only survivor. In fact, when she first discovered her bloodliner powers, she went into a panic and even came to believe she was the one who caused the fire that killed her parents. Blaine convinced her that wasn't the case; in fact, he was certain that her bloodline was what got her out of that alive and she was not to blame for her parents' deaths (never mind that she didn't fully awaken her powers until three years later). Since then, Blaine had decided to look after the girl to honor his daughter's memory.

Those were hard times, but it had been many a year since them. Since Alish was still young, she didn't have many memories of her parents or how they died (partially because she had repressed them somewhat, beyond what her grandfather told her). She had focused on fulfilling her dream, and she was very close to turn fifteen. Blaine was aware of this girl's potential, and he thought maybe it was a good time to give her 'trial by fire', so to speak.

"Ali, there's something we need to talk." Blaine approached the girl with a serious expression.

"What's up?" The girl tilted her head as she looked at her grandfather. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, of course not… I got it! Do you know how many birthdays a person celebrates on average?" The Leader's expression turned from serious to cheerful in the blink of an eye.

"Another riddle, grandpa?" Ali was now more confused than ever.

"The answer is, only one per year." Blaine laughed out loud, while his daughter just shrugged. "What I mean to say is, you will soon turn fifteen, enough age to start your Pokémon journey."

"That's right, but I'm still three months away for that." To be honest, Ali was quite impatient to begin her journey, the urge for traveling was too strong.

"Actually, I wanted to give you a gift on your next birthday, but… well, the egg hatched a little ahead than I expected, so…"

"Wait a minute… an egg?" Ali beamed, she knew what came next.

"That's right. I think you are ready for your starter Pokémon." Blaine suddenly felt heat in the air, upon seeing his granddaughter, he saw she was turning red. "Ali, you're burning again! We've talked about your Overheat, get a hold of yourself!"

"Sorry, grandpa, I'm just so excited." Alish breathed slowly and deeply, until her body temperature returned to normal. "Are you serious, you're going to give me my own Pokémon?!"

"Yes. I think giving to you three months ahead will make no harm." Blaine stopped for a moment and pulled out a Friend Ball, placing her on his granddaughter's hands. "It's the offspring of one of my Pokémon, I hope you will like it."

Alish was so excited she had to make a conscious effort not to unleash her Overheat by accident. If it was the offspring of one of his grandfather's Pokémon, there was no way she wouldn't like it.

"Alright, partner! It's time we meet!" She threw the ball up in the air. It burst open, releasing the Pokémon, who turned out to be a small Eevee, who stared at the girl who would be his new trainer.

"Vui, vui?"

"Aw, how cute!" Alish immediately hugged and petted her new friend. Strangely, instead of getting angry or scared like other Pokémon, he gladly returned his new trainer's affection by licking her face. "Thanks so much, grandpa!"

Blaine grinned at seeing his granddaughter so happy. Eevee too seemed very accepting of his new trainer. The little guy was the offspring of one of his own Flareon, and had only a couple of weeks of having hatched from the egg.

"Ah, but Eevee is a Normal-type, I can't understand his speech." Alish observed.

"Not yet," said Blaine. "But once you train him enough, you can expose him to a Fire Stone. Then, he'll become a powerful Flareon, just like mine."

Ali began reminiscing of her studies. As far as she knew, Eevee was a Pokémon capable of evolving into multiple types, one of them being, of course, the Fire-type Flareon, which was one of the many his grandfather had in his arsenal. Obviously that was her choice.

"Grandpa, can I go out for a bit with him? I'd like to play with him, get us to know each other."

"Go ahead, but please don't go getting into trouble," Blaine said.

"Grandioso, see you later!"

While his granddaughter ran off with her new partner in her arms, Blaine couldn't help but smile seeing her so excited. Receiving the starter Pokémon was something unique, a memorable moment in life for every trainer. He knew his granddaughter had a great potential. Although he had some worries about giving her starter Pokémon three months ahead of time, he was sure nothing bad could happen. Surely she could handle herself and anything she ran into.

The next day, Blaine was working at his laboratory. Professor Oak had contacted him recently to investigate the effect of Mega-Evolutions in Pokémon such as Charizard or Houndoom. Nothing out of the ordinary, until…

"Grandpa! Grandpa! You have to see this!"

Alish came in in a hurry; the girl was so excited she could barely contain her Overheat, an ample smile adorning her face.

"Hello, Ali. Do you know something that is, but at the same time it's not?"

"No time for riddles, you'll never guess what we did today."

"Something interesting?" Blaine seemed a little confused at his granddaughters' excitement now.

"I spent all my savings in it, but it was worth it!" Alish smiled confident upon pulling out her Friend Ball. "Let me show you, come out now!"

The girl summoned her Pokémon, but when the ball burst open, what came out of it was not an Eevee. It was a small, red foxlike canine with a yellow mane around his chest and neck, and a bushy tail the same color. She had turned him into a Flareon. Blaine was left speechless: he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"You… don't tell me you just…"

"I did! I bought a Fire Stone, and now my Eevee is a powerful Flareon." The girl and her Pokémon smiled confidently, but Blaine looked nowhere nearly as happy as her. "Is anything wrong, grandpa?"

"I can't believe it." Blaine facepalmed, his granddaughter had just made a very grave beginner's mistake. "What have you done?!"

"What's the matter, grandpa?" Ali's expression changed from excitement to worry; had she just made her grandpa angry?

"Don't you see?" The leader began lecturing his granddaughter. "You evolved your Eevee too fast!"

"But… all I wanted was for Eevee to be as strong as your Flareon. I thought the evolution would make him stronger."

"Honey, that's not how it works." Blaine calmed down and began to explain his granddaughter and Flareon the implications of what she had just done. "This is a very common mistake among rookie trainers. Pokémon who evolve with Stones, they're harder to train than others, especially for beginners."

"What did I do wrong?"

"Look, some trainers tend to rush to evolve their Pokémon." He gave her a serious glance. "You need to train your Pokémon in their initial stage, bring out all of their potential, have them learn as many attacks as possible and then, just then, it's that you evolve them."

Alish tilted her head in confusion. Sighing in resignation, Blaine had no choice but to explain directly.

"Let me give you an example. If a trainer has a Pikachu and evolves it just as soon as they capture it, it might gain more raw strength and endurance, but Pikachu has access to several moves a Raichu cannot normally learn on its own. If it faced against an unevolved, but experienced Pikachu, it could take advantage of moves such as Agility, not to mention that the signature attack of their line, Volt Tackle, is much easier to learn in their unevolved stage.

The aspiring trainer lost the color of her face. Then, five seconds later, it returned, becoming red hot, due to the boiling rage she felt with herself, realizing what she had done. The air around herself began heating up and her skin quickly evidenced the use of Overheat yet again.

"What have I done?! My Eevee only knew the basic moves, and I had him evolve!"

"Calm down Ali, get a hold of your Bloodline!" Blaine exclaimed. "You did make a mistake, but…!"

"It was a grave mistake!" The girl began shedding tears of anger and frustration, which quickly evaporated due to the Overheat. "I promised my Eevee I would turn him into the strongest Flareon ever! I'll never live up to that! I failed my Pokémon even before I started my journey!"

And before Blaine could say anything, the girl ran away, her concerned Flareon following shortly after. For a moment, the Gym Leader thought of chasing after her, but he finally relented. It was best to leave her alone for now. He couldn't blame her, anyone would feel that way upon having such a setback before starting their Pokémon journey.

Blaine felt he might have been a little hard on her when telling her she had made a mistake, but the scientist really wanted to help her. He wished from the bottom of his heart to help her attain her dream, and he knew how much she loved Fire-types. Even more: he was planning on having her inherit the gym when she was old enough, although she still had a long way to go before that. The leader knew how risky could be passing on a gym to a successor. Not long ago he had gotten word of the Cerulean Sisters having their Gym shut down. Of course, those three were never up to the task, which was regrettable considering how much respect he had for the original leader. A real shame that her son and granddaughters didn't live up the legacy, and he didn't want Alish to end up the same way as them. On the other hand, he had heard a lot of good things about the current leader of Fuchsia City, who inherited the Gym after her father decided to take a spot in the Kanto Elite Four, and some said she had the potential to surpass him. Koga surely had to be very proud of his daughter.

That was exactly what Blaine wanted: his granddaughter had a dream of being the best Fire-type Pokémon trainer and someday inheriting the family Gym. And he was willing to help her, even if that meant he had to be a little hard on her or putting her through some challenging trials. After all, who said that attaining a dream was easy?

Alish had left for one of the few places in the island where she could think clearly when she was upset. The abandoned Pokémon Mansion. The place was quite known in the city, it was formerly one of the laboratories where her grandfather worked alongside an old friend. But one day, an experiment went horribly wrong, and the mansion was left in shambles. Rather than fixing it, Blaine decided to leave it like that, for those Fire-types living close to the volcano who chose to make it their home. Over time, the mansion became full of wild Pokémon, not just Fire-types, but also some Poison-types and even a few Rattata.

Even though many avoided the place, the mansion had become Alish's escape place whenever she was sad or lonely. Thanks to her bloodline, she had been able to make friends with several of the Fire-types living in the mansion, who always were there to comfort her and offer advice, since she was little. Strangely, though, she had seen none of them today, but she didn't mind, at the time, she needed some space, to reflect. Fortunately, she wasn't alone, her Flareon had followed her all the way to this place.

"Flare?" 'Are you OK?'

"I'm so sorry, Flareon." The girl noticed she was still heating up, so she started breathing slowly to calm down her power. The last thing she wanted was causing a fire.

"Flare." 'It wasn't your fault.'

"Yes it was. I just got too excited and forced you to evolve." The redhead let out a deep sigh. "I'm really sorry."

"Flae." 'In your defense, I was curious myself about evolving. So it's not just your fault.'

"But I'm supposed to be the trainer. I made a grave mistake, and you'll have to pay for it."

"Flareon." 'Hey, I don't have much time since I was born. I don't care about you as a trainer.' Flareon affectionately licked Ali's cheek. 'You're my first and only friend. I don't want you to be sad because of me.'

"Flareon, you…" The redhead hugged her Pokémon tightly. "Thank you… you're the best Pokémon I could have wished for."

"Reon?" 'You won't be sad anymore?'

"No, not anymore." The trainer brightened her demeanor, still stroking her Flareon. "Hard as it might be, I'll become the trainer you deserve. I will turn you into the strongest Flareon ever. I promise."

Trainer and Pokémon embraced each other again. They promised they'd grow stronger together, no matter what happened. It might be harder, but who didn't enjoy a good challenge?

Alish sighed with a little nostalgia, recalling some of the stories her grandfather had told her. She could barely remember her parents, but Blaine had many stories to tell her about her mom. Yakimono, ironically, had also started with an Eevee, just like her now. She had been a great trainer, she traveled around the world and even won a Pokémon League once.

Blaine had always said that her mother was a very strong woman. Alish too wanted to be like her. Her first goal was to catch as many Fire-types in Kanto as she could. Then, she'd travel to other regions: Unova, Johto and Hoenn didn't sound bad at all. She had also heard that Kalos and Alola had very strong Fire Pokémon as well. The only one she wasn't enthusiastic about was Sinnoh. Over there, the best she could aspire to get was a Chimchar. This thought caused her to start laughing.

"Flare?" 'What's so funny?'

"Nothing you should worry about," she said. "We'll have plenty of time to talk about it later. Come to think about it… if there's a bright side, I can at least understand what you say."

She was already feeling better. Maybe it was time to go back with her grandfather. But when they were ready to leave, all of a sudden they heard a noise deep inside the mansion.

"Flare?" 'What was that?'

"Don't worry, must be one of the Pokémon living in this place. They love playing around here."

"Flareon?" 'But if there's so many Pokémon around here, how come we haven't seen any of them?'

Alish stopped to think, that actually was a good question. Every time she came to visit, she was always greeted by several Vulpix and Growlithes, even occasionally a Ponyta. But not this time. Did something bad happen to them?

"Let's go check it out," she said. Flareon nodded and followed her.

They both went deep into the mansion. Alish couldn't help but feel worried: she had heard rumors about thieves trying to find relics in the mansion. They could be dangerous, but she couldn't step back. Many of those Fire-types where her friends and she couldn't let anything bad happen to them.

As they walked downstairs, Alish and her Pokémon heard a voice. "Where the heck are those documents? They gotta be here somewhere…"

Ali and her Flareon stopped, and approached slowly. The stranger was a man in a strange black suit, with white gloves and boots, and a large red R in his chest. The guy was trashing around some crates still remaining from the days the mansion served as her grandfather's research place. Upon looking closer, she saw several of the Pokémon who lived in the mansion lying on the floor: Koffing, Vulpix, Rattata, Muk and Growlithe. They seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep, and that worried her even more.

"Flare?" 'Who's that guy?' Flareon whispered.

"He must be a thief. Not the first who comes here to see if they can snatch a relic or something."

"Flare!" 'A thief?! I'll take care of him!'

"Wait, Flareon! He could be dangerous!"

Too late, the Fire Pokémon had already left his hideout and with a growl quickly alerted the foe. The Rocket grunt had no time to analyze the situation as Flareon rammed him with a Tackle on the back, causing him to topple nose first against a nearby table.

"What the heck?!" He got up and saw his aggressor. "Where did you came from?!"

"Flareon, I told you not to get out!" Alish shouted, leaving her own hideout as well. Flareon had already blown their cover, there was no point in hiding anymore.

"Oh, so this Flareon is yours? You know whom you've just attacked, brat?" The grunt grabbed a Pokéball and pointed at the R on his chest as if making himself important. "See this, you know who I am? I'm a member of the illustrious Team Rocket!"

"Team Rocket?!" Alish had heard a lot about them in the news. A bunch of dangerous criminals who dealt specially in robbery of Pokémon.

"I'll give you a lesson for crossing me, go get'em!" The grunt threw his Pokéball, unleashing a pink Pokémon with an absent expression. A Slowpoke.

"Great, a Water-type of all things." Ali couldn't deny she felt scared; she was dealing with a criminal, but if the rumors she had heard were true, maybe he'd try to take away the Pokémon living in the mansion. No, she couldn't let him take any of her friends. She had to protect them. Clenching her fists, she became determined. "You won't get away with this! Flareon, use Sand Attack!"

"Flare!" 'Great! Our first battle!'

Flareon sounded extremely enthusiastic, considering the potential danger they were facing. Turning around, he began kicking up dust with his hind legs towards Slowpoke, but the Water-type didn't even blink.

"Is that all you got?" The Rocket seemed confident enough to counterattack. "I'll get rid of you with a single blow. Water Pulse!"

The Slowpoke launched a water ball at Flareon, but he managed to dodge in time. They were lucky the five-second reaction time gave them enough of a warning, but they couldn't rest easy. Even with the evolution, a single Water-type attack could be enough to leave Flareon out of the game.

"Flareon, Tackle!" Ali commanded.

"Counter with Reflect!"

Flareon ran as fast as he could to ram against Slowpoke, but it managed to raise the protective layer and drastically reduce the impact damage. The grunt once again called for a Water Pulse now that the foe was closer, and even though Flareon dodged it, some droplets managed to splash him slightly, causing him annoyance.

"Flareon, are you OK?" she asked in worry.

"Pathetic, your Flareon is at a low level." The Rocket grunt laughed. "You'll never beat my Slowpoke with those weak attacks."

Alish frowned, but as much as she hated to admit it, the guy did have a point. Due to his premature evolution, Flareon only knew the basic attacks of an Eevee, he didn't even have a Fire-type attack yet. What could she do against a Water-type Pokémon? But she couldn't back down now. If they didn't beat this guy, how could they grow stronger?

"Flareon, keep up using Sand Attack!"

Flareon once again began kicking up dust against his opponent. The grunt was starting to get bored, and he replied with another Water Pulse, and then another. Slowpoke fired water spheres one after the other; they were slow to charge, but once they were fired, they were pretty fast, and Flareon couldn't keep dodging forever. If they wanted to win, they had to use an offensive move.

"Flareon, use Tackle, over and over!"

Flareon rammed against Slowpoke many times over as hard as he could, but thanks to the Reflect, the rival barely felt the strikes. Ali began reconsidering her strategy, if those attacks didn't work, it would be just a matter of time before they got hit themselves. And that was what happened: just when Flareon jumped backwards after delivering a Tackle, Slowpoke managed to land a Water Pulse sphere. At the last second, he managed to use a Sand Attack in a last ditch effort to block it, but all he could do was reducing the damage, just enough to hold on without fainting.

"Flareon! Hang in there!"

"Flare…" 'No… I can't… let my trainer down…' – The Fire-type was barely standing on his feet.

"Heh, you're not getting away from this. Slowpoke, finish it with Water Pulse!"

Ali was bracing for the worst, but Flareon wasn't ready to give up yet. Focusing all of his strength, he tried to light that small flame every Fire-type had inside. He had to awaken it, to flame on at any cost. That was the key to his inner power.

"FLARE!" With a furious cry, he opened his mouth and launched a rain of flaming sparks against Slowpoke. Ali couldn't believe it, he had just learned Ember on pure willpower! The sparks weren't too big, but they were many in number, not just enough to hit Slowpoke, but also the grunt, forcing him to take cover.

"You're amazing, Flareon!" Ali celebrated.

"That's it! I was willing to play a little more, but you've made me mad, stupid brat!" The Rocket gave a serious glance to his Slowpoke. "Use Confusion!"

Once he recovered from the shock after the surprise Ember attack, Slowpoke began using his Psychic powers to immobilize Flareon and slowly weaken him. Flareon was slammed on the ground a couple times, but even then, the Rocket either didn't notice or just didn't care, as he ordered his Slowpoke to keep up the attack.

"Flareon!" The girl was feeling powerless seeing her Pokémon suffer that way. "Stop it, please! You won already, don't hurt him!"

"Sorry, girlie." The grunt grinned evilly. "This is your lesson for meddling with Team Rocket. You're not on the playground with your friends, now you're playing with the adults."

Slowpoke still held Flareon with his psychic force, while preparing a Water Pulse. Alish knew what it meant, her Pokémon was about to take a hit from a Water Type attack. How fool she was, if only she hadn't left the Pokéball back at the gym. But right then, the concern for her Pokémon began mixing with the anger against the Rocket grunt, causing the girl to turn redder than a tomato and all the air around her to heat up fast.

"What the heck?" The Rocket flinched. "No… don't tell me you are…"

"LET! FLAREON! GO!"

At the time, every single thought was wiped from her mind, all she wanted was to defeat that Slowpoke to stop it from hurting her friend anymore. Letting out a scream at the top of her lungs, she placed her palms forward and fired out a powerful flaming stream, catching both Slowpoke and its master by surprise.

"Slowpoke!" The Rocket grunt was dumbfounded as he saw the Overheat attack consuming his Pokémon, leaving him charred and smoking. "Damn it, you're one of those bloodliner freaks, aren't you?!

"Flare…" 'That's… my… trainer…" And with this, Flareon lost consciousness.

With Slowpoke out of the fight, the Confusion dispelled and Flareon dropped on the ground. Ali stared at her hands and gasped at what she had just done, but she finally smiled. Whenever she used Overheat she just focused on containing it, but this time, unleashing it all in a single blast… it felt amazing, and extremely liberating.

The girl was about to go after her Pokémon to help him, but suddenly, she felt her strength was fading away, and fell to her knees. Shortly after, she dropped on the ground sideways. He tried to get back up, but she was unable to. As the granddaughter of an expert in Fire-types, she didn't take long to understand what happened to her: Overheat was one of the strongest Fire-type moves, but the power came at the prize of greatly reducing the user's special attack. Maybe now she was feeling weak because of that.

Meanwhile, the Rocket grunt had no idea what had just happened, both Alish and her Pokémon were on the floor, unable to move. It didn't matter, if that annoying girl was unable to defend herself, now he could finally give her a lesson.

"I don't know what's going on, but since you're on the floor now, might as well give you a few kicks, brat," he said, cracking his knuckles.

She couldn't even talk, her face was of frustration mixed with fear. Suddenly, however, it turned into a little smile. The grunt tilted his head at this; why was she smiling? Didn't she realize the situation she was in? No matter, he'd just have to punish the brat.

"Hey you!" said a new voice behind him, at the same time a hand tapped on his shoulder. The Rocket grunt turned around, and the next thing he saw was a fist flying directly to his face. It hit him so hard it almost dislodged his jaw and knocked him on the floor.

"Who the hell…?" The grunt rubbed his face where the punch had connected. Of course, it didn't take him long to recognize who was the old man in the lab coat. "You! You're Blaine! The Cinnabar Gym Leader!"

"Well, well, I came to the mansion because I was worried, and what do I find?" Blaine walked towards Alish to check on her, and pulled out a Pokéball. "No one, I repeat, NO ONE lays a finger on my granddaughter and gets away with it."

"Granddaughter?!" The Rocket was now shocked and terrified: he had just incurred in the anger of one of Kanto's strongest Gym Leader. Although he quickly regained composure and tried to keep his bravado. "I'm not afraid of you, old man! Go get him, Gengar!"

With this, the grunt summoned the Ghost Pokémon, who showed off its wicked grin trying to intimidate them. Blaine didn't even flinch; he had brought along one of his best aces to turn any opponent into ashes. Without uttering a single word, he threw his Pokéball, revealing…

"Magmortar!" An imposing Fire-type Pokémon glanced at the Rocket grunt with the same anger as its trainer. The grunt slightly flinched.

"You won't stop me with that! Gengar, use Nightshade!"

"Magmortar, Flamethrower!"

Both attacks collided against each other, but Magmortar's Flamethrower quickly overpowered the ghost energy ray, hitting the ghost square on the face. Both the grunt and his Gengar quickly became nervous.

"Hey boy, I've got a riddle for you: I'm as destructive as life, and as healing as death. I can be the beginning of all things, but also the end. Who am I?"

"What? What the heck are you talking about?" In a split second, the grunt shifted his expression from scared to confused.

"The answer is: FIRE ITSELF! MAGMORTAR, FIRE BLAST!"

Magmortar spat a huge fire kanji, which was not only enough to leave Gengar out, but also caused a huge explosion and send it blasting through the window along with the Rocket, while he cried out "THIS IS BAD, VERY BAD!" That was the last thing Alish could remember before losing consciousness.

Once the girl came back to, the first thing she saw was her Flareon licking on her face.

"Flare, flare!" 'You finally woke up!'

"Flareon! You're OK!" She hugged him.

"Flareon." 'It takes more than that to take out the strongest Flareon ever.'

The girl looked around, realizing she was in her room. She recalled the events little by little, and then remembered that her grandfather had come to save them. Speaking of, right in that moment, Blaine entered the room.

"You fought very bravely out there, Ali. I'm proud of you."

"Grandpa! But… we lost that battle. I even had to use my bloodline powers to…"

"There's no shame in that." Blaine assured her. "Plus, that was a good battle, you did well despite facing a Pokémon with higher level and type advantage over yours."

"You think so?"

Blaine nodded. "Listen, Ali. You might have made a mistake in evolving Flareon so fast, but that doesn't mean your dream is over. It just means you'll have to work a bit harder to attain it."

"Really?" She became hopeful.

"I've been thinking," Blaine continued, "all things considered, and since you still have a few months ahead before venturing on your own journey, maybe it would be best that you and Flareon train with my Pokémon, together."

"Together?"

"We can use this time to help Flareon learn good moves and raise his level," Blaine said. "At the same time, you can learn a few yourself as well. Overheat is a powerful attack, but see how you ended up after using it only once. Trainer and Pokémon have to be stronger together, and I believe you should train too to master your bloodline. What do you say?"

"Training with you and your Pokémon?" Alish beamed in excitement. "Of course! What are we waiting for? Let's get started!"

"After you rest for a bit." Blaine glanced at his granddaughter with a smile full of pride. "Don't worry, by the time you turn fifteen, you'll both be in tiptop shape to start your journey."

Alish and Flareon smiled in determination. Soon enough they would start a long training, and they were ready to work hard at Blaine's. Over time, they'd both get stronger to learn new attacks together, but that is another story, for another time…

Meanwhile, at Cinnabar's seashore, two Team Rocket grunts awaited for their partner, who apparently was running late.

"Hey, Harry, you sure this is the right place?" one of them asked.

"Of course it is, have I ever gotten lost." The other, whose name was Harry frowned.

"But Al's been taking too long. Don't you think he could have gotten into trouble or something?"

"Easy, Ken. He'll be fine," Harry replied. Upon turning around, they finally saw their partner approaching them. "Speak of the devil, here he comes."

As he got closer, the two fellow grunts noticed he looked terrible: he was full of grave burn marks and was coming in limping and gasping for air, about to collapse. And right before he did, they had to catch him.

"Al! Dude, what the hell happened to you?!" Ken exclaimed.

"Don't tell the boss… and you dare to don't laugh," Al barely said.

"You'll tell us later." Harry helped him up. "Did you find what we came for?"

Al's expression, despite his current state, turned into a big smile. He pulled out of his jacket a few crumpled but otherwise intact documents, which was a miracle considering he had taken that Fire Blast at almost point-blank range.

"Here it is. Found it just by sheer luck, but I got it."

"Cool!" Harry celebrated. "We need to contact Mr. Giovanni ASAP!"

"Cinnabar Island, beware! Now's the time we're showing why we're Team Rocket!" Ken added.

And thus, the trio of grunts walked away, happy to have fulfilled their mission. They might not seem much, but when dealing with Team Rocket, the real trouble was just about to begin.

FIN.