(A/N) Welcome to this one-shot!

This one-shot is about the charmander in a story I am writing. If you are not familiar with The Crystal Explorations-(Book 1)The Orbs of Life, I reccomend you either go check it out, or you read this and then check it out, because this story is associated with that story by 99%.

For anyone who has come that is familiar with The Orbs of Life, this story tells about Blaze's backstory, and how he was released, and even how he met Zephyr. Leaf is not in this.

I had to choose between Blaze and Zephyr for whose backstory to write, and I chose Blaze, because he's just so much easier to write with.

Anyways, Blaze's backstory. YAAAAY!

The first part of the story is actually Blaze's trainer's POV, just thought I should point that out. The rest is Blaze.

This took surprisingly long to take, but I got it out!

OK, that's it! Enjoy!

Zarommedille Town was a small town that was located more near the east of the region. It was a popular place for young trainers to meet and battle and even trade sometimes. One reason was because of the many places you could find Pokemon around the town. Just in front of the town's entrance was a long garden of high, tall grass, and there were smaller patches around town, too. There was a decent lake near the town as well, and many Water-Types lived in it. If you were lucky, you might find a starly or even a hoothoot in the tiny thicket of trees behind Zarommedille.

A trainer wearing an indigo jacket, blue-black pants, and black gloves entered the town one day. He had a Poke-Belt with six Poke-Balls hanging on it. Pinned to his jacket were four badges, each one looking polished and quite shiny.

The trainer studied the town. He had heard that many skilled trainers came here to battle and trade Pokemon. He considered himself a skilled trainer, and he always had a different view of each species of Pokemon he met. He thought that each species type had to have the exact same appearance, power, and personality that they looked like they had. If he met a sweet, friendly, huggy drudigon, he would consider it a mistake.

After looking around for a few minutes, the trainer noticed that one house had all the lights on. The trainer went over to it and saw that there was a decent-sized battlefield next to it. There seemed to be people in the house. The boy went to the door and saw that there was a sign above the doorframe.

Zarommedille Town Trainers' Club

All Pokemon Trainers are Welcome!

Play, Battle, and Trade with other Trainers!

There was a piece of paper tacked to the sign. The trainer read it.

Battle matches being held today! All trainers are welcome! One-on-One matches! Winner of this small tournament wins 5000 Pokedollars! Can you be the ultimate battler and take home 5000 Pokedollars?

"Five thousand Pokedollars, huh?" The boy muttered to himself. He swung the door open and walked inside the club.

There was a big red couch that was occupied by five or six trainers, a table that was occupied by several Poke-Balls, cups, and snacks, and a TV that was blaring Pokemon battle music as an umbreon fought a typhlosion, probably a taping of an elite four battle.

A guy with a green T-shirt spotted the trainer and walked over. "Hey, are you a trainer?"

"Course I am." the trainer said, looking at him with an irritable, and slightly arrogant look.

The guy nodded. "Welcome to the Trainers' club. We have a little event going on-" he pointed to a neon yellow poster that had a drawing of a Poke-Ball on it and the same words the paper on the sign had. "If you want to participate in it, go talk to Jun over there."

The young trainer looked around again as the guy left. He noticed the PC box and the Trade Machine this time, both leaning against one of the walls. There was also somebody with light brown hair and an orange shirt, a little closer to what the trainer assumed was a back door.

The trainer approached him. "Are you Jun?" he asked.

He smiled. "Why yes, I am."

"Can I be in your little tournament thingie?" He asked Jun, feeling foolish. He had to be in the tournament! All his Poke-Mon were perfect and overpowered . . . except for one.

"Sure." Jun said, grinning. "Please fill out this form . . ." Jun gave him a piece of paper with some questions on it. "And I need to check your trainer ID, if that's okay."

This trainer is kind of weird, treating me like I don't know what to do! I'm shocked he didn't recognize me, I've already beaten four gym leaders!

After getting registered, the trainer went to the PC box and looked at every Pokemon he had. The pre-battle advantages he had studied before he became a trainer replayed in his head, like whenever he was about to fight a gym leader. Keep a balance of types, don't choose anything weak, use the best items. His mind whirled.

He chose Striker, his pidgeotto, Deathteeth, his gyardos (he was lucky he had found it as a gyardos, he loathed majikarp), Wildcharge, his zebstrika, Shroontip, his breloom, and Teleparth, his kadabra.

All he needed was a Fire-Type.

Fire-Types were hard to find in the wild. He only had one . . .

The charmander he had chosen as his starter Pokemon, Blaze.

Blaze was a horrible name. He would have named it something like Burner or Fireclaw or Inferno, for one thing. Plus, Blaze was useless. He never listened, and he NEVER acted fierce. He always used small attacks, and every time he was out of his Poke-Ball, he would immediately go out and explore every square inch he could find. Blaze had a totally different battle style than the trainer. He wasn't an OP KOer, which was what the trainer had expected from the runty, useless pokemon.

Still, he needed a Fire-Type . . .

He hesitated, then sent out Blaze.

"Listen up, Blaze." the trainer said. "You listen to me, you don't go staring at ever single speck of dust you find, and you FOLLOW MY ORDERS. You got that?"

Blaze looked up, looking confused. He had been inspecting the Trade Machine.

"Ugh, just follow my directions.

"Char char char char char char mander!" Blaze agreed. He went back to figuring out how the Trade Machine worked.

Ten minutes later, the matches began. The trainer felt confident at first, and he made sure that Blaze was last on his Poke-Belt. He tried to avoid using Blaze, and for most of the rounds, the charmander was never needed. None of his Pokemon fainted, and that was because they were't mistakes like Blaze, they were strong.

After winning with Striker in the semi-finals, his pidgeotto fainted from being poisoned by the opponent's nidorino. Since Striker had not fainted during the battle, it didn't count as a loss.

It's all right, I don't need that waste of a charmander, I'll be fine.

Finally, it was the final round. It was the trainer against another.

"Go! Sceptile!" the other trainer shouted. A green gecko with a tree-tail jumped onto the battle field.

Striker had fainted in the semi-finals. His other Pokemon were useless. None of them could defeat a powerful Grass-Type like Sceptile.

He had to use Blaze. If he had any chance of winning, the small sliver of it was in the imperfect charmander.

"Go, . . . Blaze."

BLAZE'S POV

"Go, . . . Blaze."

Blaze was out of his Poke-Ball. It was night, approximately 9:30, by the look of the Moon's position. He was in a battlefield, and a Sceptile was in front of him.

"Charmander!" all the humans heard Blaze squeak.

Suddenly, there was laughing.

"Your charmander hasn't evolved yet?"

"He looks like a nerd, see his eyes?"

"That thing isn't cute or strong, what's the point of it?"

"Who SQUEAKS that happy when they're about to be killed?"

All the humans were laughing. Blaze was extremely confused about this. Nobody had said anything funny.

"Why are you all laughing?" Blaze asked.

"Char char char char char char char char char char!" mocked one of the humans.

"Those people are laughing for no reason. See how they slap their knees?" Blaze told the sceptile, expecting her to get it. "See how they hit their faces? See how they are bending over because their respiratory systems cannot stand this much oxygen while standing straight? All those can lead to both minor or serious injury, you know."

All the trainers heard was a little charmander squeaking: "Char char char charman? Char charcharcharchar? Char char CHAAAAR char? Charmander char char mander char CHAR charmander charmander char char mander charmander? Char mander char char mander mander char cha char char, char mander."

There was SO much laughing after that. Some people fell to the ground, some held their chests, someone started choking! He held his throat and made a strained, coughing sound, spitting and shaking and trying to get up from the ground.

"OH ARCEUS, That human is CHOKING! Someone, help him! He needs to be saved! Help him! Look, he's falling to the ground! Arcues, can't you see all this laughing isn't good? PEOPLE ARE FALLING TO THE FLOOR DYING FROM LAUGHTER!"

Again, this was what the humans heard:

"CHAR CHARMANDER, Char charchar char CHARMAN! Charchar, Charmander! Char char charmanDER! Char! Char, char charmander char! Charmander, char cha char char mander charma char? CHARMANDER CHAR CHARMAN CHAR CHA CHAR MANDER CHAR CHARMANDER!"

"Shuuuush!" Blaze's trainer hissed. "You're making them laugh at us!"

"I-I'm making them die?" Blaze shut his mouth quickly. "That's scientifically impossible! I never even touched them!"

"Nerd." The sceptile chuckled.

NERD! She-she called me a nerd! Blaze thought angrily. EVERYBODY calls me a nerd! Even Pokemon I've never met! Am I really a nerd? No, I'm not, I'm a charmander! Am I a charmander nerd? Maybe . . .

Slowly, the dying humans lifted themselves, revealing that it was only a reaction to the laughing, and wiped their eyes.

"You're all alive!" Blaze said, relieved.

"That charmander won't stop screaming! All he does is chatter, chatter, chatter!"

"Aaw, what a BABY!" A girl teased. "He chattered his first babbles. Char char CHAR!"

A few people snickered.

Blaze hung his head. He must have looked so foolish. Was he really an ignorant baby that babbled too much?

People don't like me when I talk. I guess . . . I guess charmanders like me should not speak.

"Keep your mouth shut from now on!" hissed Blaze's trainer, just to prove Blaze's theory.

"Chaaaar!" Blaze's trainer heard his charmander respond.

"SHUSH, you pathetic sunbathing lizard!"

I-I'm a pathetic sunbathing lizard? I'm a salamander, and salamanders don't sunbathe. Do they? Ugh, I should stop thinking. Even my thinking must be pathetically weak and babbly. Pathetic, weak, babbly charmanders are not smart or strong charmanders. Pathetic, weak, babbly charmanders displease their trainers even when they are trying their best to win.

Feeling depressed, hurt, and discouraged, Blaze cowered a little and looked up at his trainer, his green eyes large.

"Enough laughing at the weird charmander! Let the battle begin!" said the human in the green T-shirt.

"Sceptile, use Leaf Blade!" said Sceptile's trainer.

"Blaze, use flamethrower, and follow my orders exactly and don't disobey me and use a different attack like you always do because you always act like a majikarp! And keep your mouth shut!" demanded Blaze's trainer, glaring down at his charmander.

Blaze shuddered, hurt by his trainer. He wanted to run away, to never look back at all these snickering, cruel trainers, but he was bound to his human by the power of the Poke-Ball his trainer owned.

He summoned some fire from inside of him reluctantly as the giant green tree-gecko charged at him, even though he knew he should be using scratch at the sceptile's leaf blades to disable them, since they were a powerful weapon.

"MOUTH SHUT!" yelled his trainer. "No more of that char char squeaky chattering nonsense! Now use flamethrower, you're taking too long! But, of course, YOU ARE USELESS!"

Blaze pushed down the bitter feelings for his trainer and tried to speed up the fire.

Just as the fire ran through his throat, Blaze realized something. How can I shoot fire out of my mouth if I can't open it?

Blaze clamped his mouth into a whistling position and tried to blow the flames at the sceptile without opening his mouth too much.

The flames, which had been roaring and white-hot in Blaze's throat, were feeble wisps of orange and grey-black smoke. The smoke flew into the air, missing Sceptile by many feet.

"What the-" Sceptile muttered, stopping for a second to watch Blaze's feeble flames blow away into the wind. She stared at the smoke Blaze was whistling out and laughed, then used a quick Leaf Blade and sliced at Blaze. A long cut appeared at his thigh, dark red.

"OOOW! Blaze yelped, clapping a claw over the cut. "Please, Sceptile, using your blades like that is very dangerous to both of us. It uses up a lot of your energy, mainly your stamina, and you are hurting a Pokemon who doesn't like to fight you! I don't want to fight, please."

Blaze's trainer stared at his charmander, who had used a flamethrower that was so RIDICULOUSLY PATHETIC that it was too useless to even make a mark on a piece of paper. The last remains of what he had kind of expected to be a flaming fire ball whisped out of his horrible, weak, useless charmander's mout has Blaze got hit by the sceptile.

"CHAAAAR!" Blaze cried, putting a claw on his hip where blood was beginning to peep through the cut. "Char, chamander, char char cha char mander char char char charmander. Charmander char charmander mander char charmander. Char char mander mander, char!"

How the trainer hated those squeaks! Even when he had clearly SAID don't speak, Blaze had caused more laughing!

"Ugh! BLAZE!" Blaze's trainer moaned. Blaze turned to look at him, squeezing the cut and trying to let his platelets cover up the gash. He walked forward a little and stumbled, falling to the ground.

"BLAZE!" yelled Blaze's trainer angrily. "Ugh, get up! I said, don't talk! You keep embarrassing me in front of people! Ugh, I should have never chosen you! If you do ONE thing to please me, I'd be happy, but nooo, you have to be the ONLY charmander in the WHOLE WORLD who isn't the charmander I WANT! NOW GET BACK OUT THERE!

Blaze shuddered, the words had stung deep into his scales. He wanted his trainer to take back his words, to be happy and proud of him, like he felt with his other Pokemon. He didn't try to disobey, he just saw opportunities and weak spots and hit them in the best way possible. Couldn't his trainer tell that Blaze was doing his best to follow his confusing orders and help him win?

The cut was hurting, making every limping, dragging step feel like a million swords were digging into his muscles. He looked up at his trainer, hoping for an Oran Berry.

"GET BACK ONTO THE BATTLEFIELD, YOU WEAK, MEANINGLESS BEGGAR!" Blaze's trainer yelled, shoving the charmander onto the battlefield with his shoe. "I wish you were never the charmander in the set, I wish you were never born in the lab, I WISH I NEVER MET YOU! All you do is slowly slowly damage opponents and faint! All you do is explore every single thing! ALL YOU DO IS NEVER MEET MY EXPECTATIONS!"

"Chaaaaaaaaaar . . ." Blaze moaned, tears in his emerald green eyes. He limped onto the battlefield, the pain from his trainer's words merging with the pain from his damaged leg.

"GO, Leaf Storm!" yelled Sceptile's trainer. Sceptile spread out her arms, and a hurricane of leaves sped at Blaze.

"Set them on fire, if you have time." said Blaze's trainer, expecting him to disobey. "I mean, should I tell you to disobey me so that you obey me or something?

Blaze knew that setting them on fire might set the house on fire and damage him as well as Sceptile, but he called for some fire and breathed it out.

I'm a Pokemon, and I have Pokemon instincts. I have to please my trainer.

I know he is mean.

But . . . Professor Hemlock gave me to him to be loyal.

I want to be the strong, loyal, obeying Pokemon that my trainer wants from me.

The fire burned all the leaves, and Blaze felt a spark of hope-he had met his trainer's hope.

"That's IT?" Said his trainer. "That was three dying EMBERS! I said SET THEM ON FIRE, NOT BURN THEM!"

Blaze's tail drooped. Using more fire might burn more than the leaves.

Yet he used another flamethrower anyways, feeling guilt and dread.

Flames went everywhere. The fire caught on the leaves, and they still barreled at Blaze, now on fire. Smoke obscured Blaze's vision. The humans were yelling and screaming.

"GO, WARTORTLE!" somebody yelled."Holy smokes, literally! I can't see tha fire, how'm I supposed ta put it out if I can't ev'n see it? Jeepers, this is a madhouse!" Blaze heard a Pokemon say."

Sceptile was screaming, scrambling away to her trainer.

Blaze looked at his trainer and saw that he had left.

Blaze had been abandoned on the battle field.

"Alright, I'ma putting it out, gal, can'tchya see that I'm tryin to shoot water at tha fire? Jeez!" Said the wartortle.

And then, through the black smoke and insanity of the backyard and sprays of water, Blaze saw millions of smoky, sharp, flaming leaves coming at him.

Blaze did nothing to stop them, knowing that running away would't work, and attacking the leaves would cause more danger. Instead, his depression and feeling of discouragement returned, and he curled up into a ball.

"Useless, useless, weak . . ." Blaze thought he heard his trainer. "I should get rid of him, not worth it to save him."

A fiery leaf hit his scales.

He shut his eyes tight.

He knew everything was over.

All the leaves attacked him, and then Wartortle used Surf, and the flames died down . . .

But Blaze was already unconscious.

"Get out, smokesack."

Blaze was sent out of his Poke-Ball.

"You're lucky I gave you mercy, you know, healing you before I set you free."

I knew it. He is going to set me free. Not that I'm surprised, I did almost kill everybody. But that was his idea . . .

"From the second I met you, I knew you'd be a disappointment."

I'm a disappointment; maybe he's right, maybe the world would be better with out me . . . I don't need someone to tell me that.

It was still night, and it seemed to be right after the fire incident. The moon had not moved drastically from it's position, and the house and battlefield were still visible. Blaze was relieved to see that the fire had caused no damage at all to anything.

"I lost five thousand Pokedollars because of you! And I had to pay a two thousand Pokedollar fine!"

"I tried to teach you. You don't go for every advantage, you attack first, be strong."

"It's been a whole month. I've had it with you. I never want to see your pathetic face again."

Blaze stared up at his trainer, his eyes big and wet and shiny and pitiful.

"GET OUT OF HERE! DON'T YOU GET IT! I DON'T CARE! NOBODY CARES! YOU KNOW HOW EVERYONE LAUGHS, THEY'RE NOT LAUGHING AT A JOKE, THEY LAUGH AT HOW USELESSLY WEAK AND WASTING YOU ARE! ANYONE WHO ISN'T ASHAMED TO CALL YOU THEIRS IS CRAZY! I'VE HAD IT, I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, BLAZE!" the charmander

Blaze's trainer kicked the charmander, a little harder than Blaze would have thought of as a 'shove'.

"Get out of here."

He walked away from Blaze. When he was a few yards away, he pulled something from his Poke-Belt and threw it at Blaze.

It was Blaze's Poke-Ball.

The red-and-white ball cracked at the touch of the ground.

Blaze could almost feel the light of the flame on his tail dim.

His trainer kept walking until he was just a silhouette.

Then he was gone.

Blaze dragged himself a few feet away and let himself fall to the ground.

Was it just his imagination, or did storm clouds crowd over his head, dangerously dark?

Would he have been recalled if the battle was still going on? Or would his trainer scream that Blaze was weak for being afraid of rain and he was useless for such a harmless weakness?

I just wanted to help you . . . the best way I could.

I never meant to anger you.

I never wanted to be hated by the only thing keeping me alive.

I can't help being me, can't you see that?

I can't help it.

I can't help being a Pokemon, I can't, I can't, I can't.

I guess that the things I can't change are the things that make me . . . me?

Please, why?

One more chance?

Blaze shuddered. The dank feeling of a storm was sweeping into the air.

It's getting cold.

Y-you're coming, right?

P-please?

Blaze saw the first raindrop.

I have no shelter, no home, nobody to depend on.

It's getting a little wet . . . why aren't you coming back?

I'm waiting for you, you know.

Risking my life, hoping and hoping you will take me back.

I-I never meant to make you mad.

Please.

I'm so cold.

It's starting to drizzle, you know.

I did everything I could do for you. Why didn't you see that?

Why?

Last few seconds . . . please come back.

. . .

Alright.

You're not coming back, are you?

No, I can see you aren't.

Blaze squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could.

You're not coming back.

. . .

I'm not coming back, either.

Blaze made up his mind and turned away from the town, away from his trainer, away from his old life as a mistreated slave.

Blaze was freezing. He woke up, shaking and feeling uncomfortably wet.

A-AM I DEAD?

He checked the flame on his tail.

The glow at the end of it was dimmer than usual.

But it wasn't out.

And he wasn't dead.

He was shocked that he wasn't dead, and that it was still burning.

He had draped leaves over his body and had let himself sleep, thinking that it would be his last night alive.

But he had survived the storm.

Blaze got up and staggered a little. He was alive, but the flame was considerably lower than before it had started raining.

Blaze felt a little dizzy, but he let his wobbling feet walk.

It was a dreary morning, and three gray clouds covered the sun.

One of the fat clouds let a little ray of sunlight lit Blaze. Immediately, he felt better.

I can survive, I can start a new life.

No more trainers.

I can be who I really am, and I don't have to please a human who will hate me no matter what I do.

Blaze was walking better now, and the flame on his tail was getting bigger by the minute. There were tons of new things to explore, too.

I can explore whatever and whenever I want. I'll be the best explorer ever!

He had been walking for maybe half an hour when he saw a squirtle.

The squirtle looked exactly his age. He was looking around, looking scared. There was some kind of rock over his head, like a helmet.

Blaze walked over to the squirtle slowly.

"H-hello?"

"YAAAAAARG!" the squirtle cried, shooting water at whatever he was facing. His eyes were shut tight, and the rock-helmet fell off as the Water-Type scrambled around, shooting every tree and pebble with water. Blaze covered his tail, glad and scared the squirtle couldn't see.

"I wouldn't attack the trees with you're eyes closed." Blaze suggested.

The squirtle opened his eyes. "Who are you? I've only met one charmander, and he didn't look like you, he was bloody.

B-bloody?! Is he referring to the color of his scales, or did he actually have blood all over him?

The disturbing image of a murky, scarletish charmander with blood staining his claws and dripping from his mouth entered Blaze's brain. Blaze shoved the terrifying thought away and focused on the squirtle.

"Who are you, and why aren't you with your trainer?"

"My identity is a secret!"

"Tell. Me."

"Ugh." the squirtle suddenly made himself look mysterious and shockingly serious. "The name's Bond. Famous Bond."

"Not going to work, everybody in the world knows that reference." Blaze said.

"Aargh, mayte!" the squirtle said. He stuck up his index finger and made it a hook shape, shut one eye, stood on one foot, and bared a wide-mouthed grin. "Ahoy, scaly wag, me name's Jacket Spearow! Aaargh, I have lot's of booty and treasure, that I hide in me shell, and I'm the greatest buccaneer in the seas, mayte! AAARGH!"

"First of all, you are a squirtle, not a spearow, and secondly, if you're a pirate, where's your ship and parrot?" Blaze said, a little sarcastically.

The squirtle took a leaf and put it over his closed eye, then grabbed a tailow that had been flying over their heads in the sky and planted it onto his shoulder.

"Aargh, see me eye patch and me parrot, Aye!"

"LET GO YOU CRAZY POKEMON!" Screamed the tailow, flapping away from the squirtle's shoulder.

"Aye, looks like me parrot has blown away, yargh!" the squirtle said.

"Drop the act. You aren't a pirate." Blaze said. "Now, tell me who you really are!"

The squirtle frowned. "If you must know, I'm a leprechaun."

"What? You're a squirtle, not a leprechaun!"

"Erk!" The squirtle glared, upset his trick had not worked. "You're right, I'm a . . . zombie!"

"You are not." Blaze said.

"I am." said the squirtle.

"No."

"Yes!"

"No-"

"YES!"

"No!"

"NO!"

"Good, you admit you are not a zombie." Blaze said.

"Blast, thought that would work!" the squirtle said.

Blaze gave up and decided to call this squirtle by his species name.

"Squirtle, where's your trainer?" Blaze asked.

"My name is not Squirtle." the squirtle informed him. "My name is Zephyr, actually. And I don't have a trainer because my human thought I wasn't good enough for her and released me!"

H-he's just like me!

Not the pretending to be a spy then a pirate then a leprechaun then a zombie part, the being abandoned part!

I want to be an explorer . . . but I can't have an exploration team without a partner.

Okay. I'm going to trust Zephyr.

"Hello, Zephyr." Blaze said, making up his mind. "My name is Blaze, and I was abandoned by my trainer yesterday night. I'm aiming to be an explorer, because exploring is the most fun thing I knew existed that I've done. I can be an explorer by myself, but I can't form a team with just one Pokemon, and I've become fond of you in those awkward two minutes. Would you like to . . . to be an explorer with me?"

(A/N) And THAT'S how Blaze and Zephyr formed Team Crystal.

I hope you enjoyed this!

If you want one for Zephyr as well, let me know!

Please write your review!

-Static Eevee 198