Houndoom

Houndoom is part of the team of Pokemon Diancie sent to Contract with humans.

Appearance
When compared to others of his breed, Houndoom has slightly thicker and longer horns, and a bit more of fur on the top of his hind legs. He carries himself with a raised head and tail held high, unless he's in a relaxed mood or in Diancie's presence, and he'll make eye contact when talking to someone.

Personality
Houndoom is the kind of Pokemon that attacks first and never asks questions, and likes to pick fights just for the sake of having something to bite into. In fact, the only reason he’s helping Diancie with the whole 'get a human pet and bring the star kid back' is because it opens the possibility of a fight with Luxray while giving him enough freedom to not feel like he’s following orders all the time.

He'd challenge anything that could defend itself to a fight, even Pokemon who have a clear advantage over him like Gyarados, as he's more interested in the experience than the result and would die happy if it was in the middle of a battle. However, that doesn't mean winning isn't important, because it is, thank you very much. Losing just means he must get stronger and challenge the thing back until he can beat its ass to next Thursday.

Houndoom has the tendency to only call others by their names if he acknowledges or likes them. He's partial to other canine Pokemon, and Dark or Fire types. As for humans, he doesn't even bother and calls them all 'meat sacks'; the only exception is his partner, since he picked a fight with Houndoom back when they met.

Before the Comet
Not much is known about his life as a Houndour, as he hates to talk about it and will pick fights with anyone who asks. Just that he was born and raised in the same pack of canine Pokemon as Mightyena, and he was most definitely not adorable and nonthreatening and going wafwafwaf at anything that moved what are you talking about. He left (or was kicked out, depending on who you ask) almost as soon as he evolved, for insubordination, getting into fights with everyone, and generally being too much of a pain to handle. Having to follow orders wasn't for someone who picked fights with the Alpha every single time.

There was a period of time after that when he wandered around, convinced he didn't need anyone else to survive and managing pretty well. However, canine Pokemon tend to be more comfortable in packs with a clear hierarchy, and as much as his personality contrasted it, Houndoom was no exception and couldn't fight his instincts forever. After a few months of living by himself, he finally decided that he had proved he could be on his own and had just gotten bored, so to spice things up he should have his own pack. It was hard to locate other intelligent canines with humans everywhere taking up so much space, but eventually he found a small group led by a female Arcanine, who he defeated in a formal challenge with the advantage of his ability. Finally he could stop feeling so on edge at the time.

His new-found life didn't last long, though. Each passing day made it more and more clear that while he liked being considered the strongest and having an excuse to pick fights with every stranger, he absolutely hated dealing with all the responsibility of being in charge of others. After a few more frustrating weeks, when it started to suck the fun even out of hunting, he decided enough was enough and left.

Having exhausted all options without finding a satisfying one, he just aimlessly wandered around again, pissed at everything. It was around that time when he first heard about Diancie, and a fourth option opened up. After all, he might be an egotistical overconfident hellhound, but beating a Legendary that had a type advantage over him? Never being able to do that wasn't humiliation, it was a fact of life.

With those thoughts in mind, he became part of the group of Pokemon being recruited for some kind of 'special mission' that he later would find out was about guarding/entertaining some kind of wish-granting kid from outer space (he stopped paying attention after 'Legendary' was mentioned, thinking instead of how to get away with picking a fight with it). But still, life under the ground was pretty good; he didn't need to listen to anyone except Diancie and she was pretty chill, and there were a lot of other Pokemon to battle with. He was more relaxed than he'd been in a long time, and staying after the mission was something he was already taking for granted.

And then, Luxray dropped by and raided the place. And though Houndoom was there, it all happened so fast he couldn't even get the human's scent before he was knocked out. By the time he woke up again, everything was over, Jirachi was gone, and plans were being made to get back the star kid.

So of course he was going to participate in that too. He'd never seen something that powerful before, and hell was going to freeze before he let a chance to fight that get away. So what if most of that power came from a Contract with a human? There were millions of those things around. And if Houndoom found one that defeated Luxray's, it'd prove he was the stronger one. Borrowed power is still his own power, after all.

Contract
While the group was supposed to stay put and wait until Friday to choose a human to Contract, Houndoom didn’t consider it an order and ran off as soon as he could to start getting accustomed to the new geography and how to avoid the local humans. On Wednesday night, he was going around a quiet part of town when he heard crying sounds that were definitely canine. The whimpering intrigued him enough to investigate, and soon he found himself in a dark alley slowly approaching the source.

"A small mutt around half his size was pressing herself against the corner, looking at Houndoom as if she was afraid she was going to get attacked. Her tail was between her legs, one of which wasn’t touching the ground, being held up in an uncomfortable-looking position. She whimpered again, lowering her body and holding her head down, eyes squinting and not looking directly at him. Probably got hit by someone, he decided, scoffing at the faint smell of blood. Not his problem then.

''Sudden quick footsteps made him turn, reflexes kicking in and making him jump back as soon as he saw the black thing almost in his face. Growling, he immediately retreated to the other side of the alley, counting on the shadows to mask his appearance from the suicidal human that had thrown a freaking jacket at his face. He knew from experience an angry sound usually sent them running away without pausing to get a good look at him, so he let out a loud bark.''

''The human didn't even flinch. It remained where it was, close enough to get in the way if Houndoom approached the mutt, its back towards the wall of the alley so both dogs were on its field of vision. It held itself tall, eyes locked on Houndoom's body without holding his gaze, and said in a low and steady tone, "Leave."''

''Houndoom couldn't help the small smirk that didn't show his teeth. Unlike the other meat sacks he had 'interacted with' (here meaning 'scared away before he could be seen'), this one wasn't showing any fear and looked ready to continue a fight if Houndoom picked one. He decided to test it, and growled while taking a step forward. "You have no right to give me orders, human."''

''The human looked startled enough, quickly looking at the other dog as if to confirm it was really a dog before finally looking at him in the eye. "You talk?" Its tone was bewildered and surprised, but its position remained firm after the initial shock.''

Perfect, ''Houndoom thought, walking out of the darkness. "I won't harm you. If you can land a hit on me, I won't harm her either," he said, jerking his head towards the mutt's direction.''

''The human looked between the two dogs again. Houndoom expected it to question why did he look so different from an usual dog, or why was he talking, but instead it said in an even tone, "You give your word?"''

''He lowered his stance, shifting his weight to his hind legs and focusing all his attention on the human. "You have it, meat sack."''

Apparently that was enough for it, and the next second Houndoom had to jump again to avoid being punched in the snout."

The human could not only understand Houndoom's words, but it could stand its ground too. Houndoom's agility and experience in battling all kinds of Pokemon meant the other couldn't get a hit now that he was focused, but he considered it enough. He purposefully let the human get him on one of his horns.

The human, Victor, used something called a cellphone to ask someone to come pick the mutt, and Houndoom explained the situation while he waited. The rules of his Contract were simple enough: Victor would help in Diancie's mission of getting that Legendary back and stopping Luxray and any of their followers ('by force' was heavily implied). He would follow Houndoom's commands, and Houndoom would stay in the Contract capsule as little time as possible if there weren't any fights going on. In exchange, Victor would get access to Houndoom's power and his protection.

Victor accepted, and the Contract was sealed with the appearance of a Safari Ball.

Ability Details
Flash Fire makes Houndoom completely immune to Fire-type moves, the effect transferring to his partner when they're transformed. If hit by one, their body glows red and the fire from the attack disintegrates or surrounds them, disappearing. The first time it happens, the power of their Fire moves increases by 50% until Houndoom returns to his Pokeball, the transformation is undone, or a significant amount of time has passed.

Moveset
Houndoom’s moveset is basically “bite everything” and has no strategy whatsoever besides picking a move and charging right on, even though he’s supposed to be better at special attacks. Flame Charge is in instead of Super Fang because the latter depends on the opponent’s health to deal damage, and Houndoom wants only moves that rely on his own strength.

While he was on his own, Houndoom's favorite starting move was to use Flame Charge first to get the speed boost and reduce the distance to his target, and then latch on with one of his biting moves.

Trivia

 * He has the habit of breaking everything that finds its way into his mouth and takes it as a challenge if said object doesn't break. That's why a good way of getting him to stay still is to give him something to bite into. Preferably something that doesn't break easily and that no one would mind should it get destroyed/drooled on.
 * He likes to rub his back on the ground to scratch it, but he'll never do this if he's in front of someone he isn't comfortable with. Which is mostly everyone. Probably the only ones who have seen him do it as a Houndoom are Diancie and a few of her followers who walked in unannounced and were promptly chased out by an angry dog on fire.
 * He hates Pokemon that can teleport, fly, swim or dig. The reason is because he himself can't do any of those, so he's forced to drop the chase when pursuing someone who can.
 * He's pretty good at taking notice of his surroundings and everything that’s happening around, especially when he’s chasing something. However, when he’s feeling confident he gets distracted easily, and doesn’t notice things he usually would.
 * One of his hobbies while living underground was to randomly pick a Carbink and run away with it on his mouth. He got amusement out of their reactions, and if they attacked him, hey, free fight. He had to stop when Diancie 'asked' him to, but it was fun while it lasted.
 * While he does obey Diancie without complaining, he only listens to her orders if she tells him herself. If someone else relies the message to him, he treats it as more of a suggestion and usually ignores it.
 * He used to chase his tail when he was a Houndour. Last time he did it was a day after he evolved, and the increased length made it so easy to catch that he got angry at how betrayed he felt. That was actually the reason he picked his first serious fight with another member of the pack, though good luck getting it out of him.