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Once there lived a famous young pokemon trainer, who took a long and arduous trek into the wilderness.
Seeking new challenge, she attempted to venture into a vast cave so treacherous that most simply ignored its existence. She combated the strong pokemon in the higher portions of the cave, their attacks sharpened by adversity and struggle. Then she moved on to deeper levels. But as her descent continued, eventually the pokemon thinned out. And then they stopped appearing entirely. As if they weren't able to go any further. Or perhaps, they were too scared to?
Brushing off bad premonitions, she delved deeper, eager to find something that no one else had seen before. Until finally, all alone at the final depth, she encountered a Charizard whose body rippled with power. Ecstatic at her discovery, she engaged it in battle. It was hard fought, but in the end she triumphed. And she caught the Charizard.
As soon as she could after returning to the surface, she hunted down her rival and challenged him to battle as well. She wanted to show him the strong new pokemon she had caught. It seemed like just another step in their eternal competition, at first. Until, in the middle of the battle, her rival's Sudowoodo metamorphosed. It seemed as if its entire body became like solid light in that moment, and then that light grew and changed shape, the shine vanishing only after the pokemon had become unrecognizable as itself. It looked just the same as the Charizard it had been battling.
The newly formed Charizard roared with a potent eagerness that was totally unlike the Sudowoodo's once quiet, cautious mannerisms. As if to say that its original personality had been erased, like it was nothing more than a copy. As realization set in, both trainers began to panic. Quickly she checked the contents of her poke balls to assure herself...but it was too late. Each one of them was transformed, exactly the same.
In the ensuing days and weeks, many Pokemon Professors were brought to examine the Charizard, hoping to find a solution to the nightmare. No solution came. By all accounts the process seemed irreversible, and none could even explain how it had occurred. In body and in mind, the pokemon she had loved were gone.
At first she had felt a deep rage towards the Charizard she had caught. She wished it would just fly away and never come back. But once the professor's examinations were over and she saw it again, it became clear to her that it knew nothing about its own horrifying power. Its face held no malevolence. Just an innocent grin tinged with sadness.
It was the sadness of a pokemon who had burst into life alone without explanation, and lived its entire life in solitude thereafter. A pokemon that was avoided by all others, for it was a cursed existence that would corrupt all near it, whether it wanted to or not. It had only wanted to be caught and trained, the same as any other pokemon. Like a small child, it did not comprehend the ruin it had caused.
No one could help her. And there was no one she could blame. All of the pain she felt, she would have to bear on her own.
In the aftermath of the incident, she gave up on battling. She retired to a secluded place in the mountains, to live a life free from the attentions of others. No one for company but her Five Charizard. Her own four, as well as the one that had once been her friend’s. Tearfully he had offered what was once his ace pokemon to her, knowing that it would be a grave danger to any pokemon besides her own. Sometimes her friends and family visited her for company, of course not taking any pokemon with them for the journey. But apart from that and the Charizard, she was alone.
Even now, people still talk about the famous trainer who suddenly vanished from the public eye. Some imagine she is still off training somewhere, and they wonder how great a battle they would get if they tracked her down. But very few people know her whereabouts, and any trainer who asks her family or close friends what they know gets shouted down with unforgiving harshness.
If you look for her, they are told, you won't find a battle. You will find only despair.
She is able to live mostly peacefully. Her only fear is that eventually someone will get too curious and come looking. It’s not such a bad life, she thinks. The quiet of the mountain becomes comforting after a while. Her Charizard are all strong and friendly and easy enough to look after. And it's not their fault, if sometimes she gets a flash in her mind of the pokemon they used to be, and she has to struggle to hold back her tears.