[Pokémon] Fiery Disposition [OS]

[Venia Silente]

Fiery Disposition

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Hello everyone! This is a small story I write partly to give a proper fic debut to an older character of mine. Tephros, the Blaziken you'll soon meet, was an RPing character I ran from around 2011 to 2013. This story is also written as part of a drabble bingo event elseswhere, with the prompt given to its card being "power reveals".

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Miria didn't love flowers *that* much, but she loved that her mother did, and they could spend time like that in the genetic garden.

What she liked more, what her Pokémon did, was defeating renowned opponents. Every time an opponent would submit under the heat of Tephros' talons it was a cause for celebration.

The team had walked earlier into the hills, to look for herbs and berries, some of the Blaziken's companions also accompanying them in the exploration. They reached a clearing, set up a tent and picnic, then went their own ways to explore. Some of them helped Miria look for things to grab, the Sinistea teammate remained with Miria, and the Marowak sparring partner Tephros had went to brood up a tree.

Tephros wandered off mostly lost in thought, idly rubbing a wound in his right arm and looking for rocks to punch or for a wild Pokémon seeking a fight.

Tephros eventually found some rocks. Old. Small. Weak. The pressure of the new temporary evolution he had achieved shattered them with ease, and the embers and flames the form allowed him to summon danced threateningly close to the bushes nearby. The Blaziken could feel the power and the calling of his Trainer. The mountain was not going to stop him.

Miria sent them a signal, the team promptly headed for the location she had marked. The Voltorb and Sinistea of the team got there first, and Tephros was not far behind. Unique flowers were ahead, in a small cave accessible through a narrow passageway was the notice, but they needed to clear some large boulders that were blocking the entrance to the passageway.

Tephros looked at the boulders, some of them larger than he was, the others small and covering every possible remaining opening. They were locked out of the cave and its secrets. The Blaziken rubbed his aching arm and looked around for Miria. She had not arrived to the opening yet.

It would at least be a good challenge. He could get it done in no time, with the power of the Mega form.

He indicated to his teammates as such. To move aside.

For the Blaziken summoning the power was easy, even more as he felt his body surging, ready to change shape. Orange filled his eyes, and it was all the ultimate picture in his mind: the boulders shattered, the passageway opened. He pulled back his arm, ready for what would only need to be one punch.

Then he heard her cry from downhill, she asked what was he about to do.

Her energy would be the one to drive him to the heightened form, but in her mind and her voice there was doubt and confusion.

The fire orange faded and Tephros found himself before the boulders still untouched. His teammates were also there, and as he turned around he saw Miria reaching up to where the group was. She asked if everything was okay and if the flowers had been damaged.

Tephros hesitated for a moment, but he ultimately cawed to his Trainer that they had not opened the passageway yet. The others were looking at him, wondering what to do, Sinistea floating about the opening and Marowak tapping his club against the ground.

Then the Blaziken made a choice. Opening the path to the flowers was still the goal, but it had to be done with care.

As Miria got up to the group and she and the others looked, Tephros walked up to his Marowak teammate and instructed him to clear out the blockage, starting from the top, as he was the most adequate for the task.

It took only a few minutes for Marowak to do it, and Tephros and the others waited patiently all the while. In the end, Tephros and Miria only had to help shove some of the small remaining rocks and stones aside.

Miria and the team Marowak crawled into the opening, while the rest of the team looked. Tephros sat back on the dirt and looked at them go deeper inside for their prize.

He pondered for a moment if he had misjudged the cave or the rocks blocking it.

Rocks and boulders did not fight back, they did not make for a fair test; they would heat up or melt, just like bushes and flowers would burn up and cackle. The power of the new form was too much for Tephros to do anything less to them. And yet he lost fights, and he ached.

The human and her crawling companion sang a little tune of victory as they reached their prize. Tephros breathed in and tilted his head, content with how the day had gone, and that he had not failed his Trainer or his team.

Tephros was weak, after all. It was the better way to protect the flowers and the joy that his Trainer shared with her own kin. As the Sinistea hovered into the cave to take a look at a flower that Marowak had pulled out, they all heard Miria's comment: a variety of blue flowers that she and her mother had not seen before.

A new gift for the garden, for the next time they went to visit.

The Blaziken knew the team would share this joy.

The flowers were safe: the team was allowed to be weak, and Tephros would see that it was done right.

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Author's Notes

Originally written for Thousand Roads's Anniversary 2023 Drabble Bingo. Prompt seed was leadership / ruling, and prompt card was "power reveals".

Tephros and Miria © me, y'all know all the drill. They werefirst featured in WAAPT as a Combusken and his Trainer during the arcs running from 2011 to 2013.