The Legend Thief - Part 5: The Cure

Chapter 37: To Start Anew

Quinci jumped onto ninetails, and they sped off. Quinci directed, "Ninetails, use flame-charge!"

Ninetails quickly engulfed itself in fire, and its speed increased dramatically. They cut through the bushes, burning the leaves in their wake. They left a trail of ashes behind, a remnant of the bushes.

Quinci's hair flew in the speed, the warmth of the fire turning her cheeks red. She gripped ninetail tightly, as the small embers landed on her clothes. Of course they were fireproof (how else could the Valor base be in a volcano?) but the blistering heat still reached her skin.

Quinci looked up as she rode ninetails. Articuno had already gone off to fight with Shell and Raichu. Moltres too, had already left. But Zapdos was still with Ash. Quinci bit her lip. How could she defeat Zapdos? He was a legendary... one of the most powerful pokemon out there. One direct blast of lightning and she's done for. She also couldn't keep blocking his attacks if she wanted to get to the pokeballs. Blocking requires her to stay in one place. So her only option was to dodge.

"Okay, ninetails," Quinci whispered. "Be as fast as you can and dodge all the attacks, okay? We're gonna try to tire Zapdos out." Ninetails snorted in understanding.

Quinci charged at Ash and Zapdos, trying to sneak around them to get as close to Ash as possible to seize the two master balls that were in Ash's hand. But unfortunately, Quinci had only gotten a few meters until Ash spotted her.

"Zapdos!" Ash cried. "Attack Quinci!"

Zapdos turned his head and spotted Quinci and shot a lightning bolt at her. Ninetails dodged, but the bolt was so close that it threw the pokemon off, deactivating the flame-charge. Ninetails skidded to a halt, almost tripping over its feet.

"WATCH OUT!" Quinci exclaimed as the ground exploded beside her. Ninetails dodged just in time.

"Be like the leaf!" Quinci quoted, "and never stop moving! Spirals and spins... ugh... I forgot the rest of the quote..." But her pokemon understood.

Ninetails swirled around in flurry of yellow fur. Zapdos started spamming lightning bolts in frustration. Each one landed close to them, but never touched them. Then, when Zapdos was all tired out, Quinci shouted, "Use flamethrower!"

Ninetails leaped into the air, still spinning. It created a ring of fire around itself. As soon as they landed and stopped spinning, ninetails sent all the fire straight toward Zapdos. Zapdos fainted, still exhausted from all that spamming.

Quinci and ninetails charged at Ash. Quinci reached out, trying to grasp the master balls, but Ash turned away and elbowed her in the stomach. Quinci gasped, air escaping from her lungs. She instinctively jerked forward, falling off ninetails, and tumbled over in a somersault.

Crack.

Her leg crunched on the ground, foot twisting in grotesque way. Quinci fell to her side. A jolt of pain stabbed through her, before fading to a a biting ache. Quinci breathed heavily, as tears squeezed out of her eyes. She had twisted her ankle, and now was unable to move.

No no no! she thought, I can't stop yet! I have to stay here for my friends!

"Argh," Quinci said, and she gripped the cloth of her jacket, "I won't go down!"

5 seconds later...

Quinci: *unconscious*

***

[Listen to song while reading scene. WOOHOO GHIBLI SONGZ!]

Ash brought Pichu up to the surface of the oasis, which was good for her. She had to think things over... even now, her memories were muddled.

Her first thought upon reaching the surface, was, Water!

Pichu crawled toward the oasis, and hesitantly touched the water. The pollen that held the water up had all sunk to the bottom, making the concentration at the top very low. The water rippled, but didn't grab at her, so she drank. The liquid cooled her throat, and like the water, her memories slowly trickled back.

My father is dead. Raichu is leader of Team Instinct. I'm the heir to Team Protego. The fate of the world rests in my hands. I am the world's last hope for peace... These thoughts filled her mind as it did every morning, the harsh truths crashing down on her, but this time, it didn't crash down. It merely drifted through her mind. But why?

Suddenly, she realized that by joining Ash, she had freed herself from these responsibilities. She no longer had to be in other's shadows anymore. She could finally rise and shine and become the person she always wanted to be.

Pichu sighed a heavy sigh. A lot had happened, and she was still wrapping her head around it. Despite her lack of current understanding, her happiness was still unrivaled. (Wow. That's a big word, authors, Pichu thought. Unrivaled. I just turned eleven, ya know... Even Quincieevee didn't know that word!)

[EXCUSE ME? I know that word! Quincieevee (the author) thought angrily.]

(Well, now you know after you looked it up!)

[Ugh. Can we just get back to the story already...]

(You're writing this. Not me. You make us move on.)

[I can also make a huge fireball blast in your face-]

{Come on, guys, Shellyeevee thought. Back to the plot...}

{Moral of the Story, Coconutpuppy thought. NEVER trigger an author who is writing your story...}

"It's just... a lot to take in." Pichu said to herself, and rested her head on her knee. "I have to start anew. Everything... everything I know has been reset." There was pindrop silence for a full minute.

"When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change," Pichu whispered. She wondered where she had heard that from, and realized it was from Avatar: Legend of Korra.

Pichu thought, quoting from Ash, Destiny isn't a pathway you have to follow, paved out before you were even born. Destiny is the future. And the future can be changed by the actions of the present.

Pichu added her own version, But in order to move forward in time, closer and closer into the future, your destiny, you must stop worrying about the past that had already happened and move on and focus on what is happening and what will happen.

Stop thinking about your past life and move on.

But no matter how much she told herself that she was free now and she should move on, she still had a nagging feeling that she had done the wrong thing. Pichu closed her eyes.