| History | - History:
Quinn was born, like a lot of pokemon, in a battle friendly town in eastern Kalos. The days were full of action and adventure, training and mock battles, but at night the town settled down into a quiet slumber. It was a peaceful life. At least it was, until Team Flare started making trouble. In the beginning it was just recruitment rallies, luring away or convincing young up and coming trainers to join their cause. Then came the thefts, property damage, lies and slanders that drove people out of town. Quinn’s first trainer was among those lured into the life of a Team Flare member.
The young Fennekin was put through his paces as the pokemon of a grunt, expected to outperform any random trainer they encountered and trounce them quickly. But more and more, as time went by, Quinn realized that a routine life of fight, eat, sleep wasn’t very appealing to him. It wasn’t long before he escaped and set out into the world on his own. Though still a Fennekin, Quinn did quite well for himself out in the wild thanks to the training he had received while in Team Flare. He was able to find shelter, protect his territory, and forage for food all on his own for nearly a year after escaping. What he never expected was for a young trainer to happen upon him and capture him while his guard was down.
Thankfully the boy who captured him wasn’t a bad person, just a young lad on his pokemon journey looking to make a name for himself. With him Quinn managed to evolve into a Braxien and learned the importance of fighting with his teammates as one, rather than individually, since his new trainer had a love of double battles. A couple of years passed and, while Quinn enjoyed the slightly more fruitful life of a strategic battler, he was still not satisfied. He needed more, he just didn’t know of what.
It wasn’t until his trainer started using him less and less that Quinn considered the idea of leaving again, growing worried that he was going to be stuck in the storage of a pc somewhere rather than ever exploring nature again. But as his trainer reached his sixth gym that very thing happened. The young man was preparing to transfer his unused pokemon into the system when Quinn broke free of his ball, and before he could get recalled he quickly snatched the multi-colored orb and ran, never once looking back. Much to his surprise he was only one town away from his first home, a wave of nostalgia creeping into him that led the young Braxien back into the quiet village. But the place had very much changed under the influence of Flare.
Gone were the children playing and battling with their new pokemon, running through the streets causing mischief. Gone were the welcoming shop owners and happy trainers on their way to school. Instead they had been replaced by quiet tension, people walking from point A to point B in somber silence and refusing to make eye contact. The few points of life in the town were children squabbling over what appeared to be a TM disc cartridge, one of them getting violent enough to punch his friend in the gut before running off. All of it just seemed so wrong to Quinn and he quickly resolved to try and fix it.
Integrating himself into the life of the town once again was hard, especially since most of the pokemon he had known as a young kit were no longer living there. They had gone off in their lives either to escape Flare or join it, leaving Quinn feeling very isolated in his hometown. But thanks to his keen mind he was able to find his niche, comfortable homing himself in the town library and befriending a young woman who allowed him to stay. She would often stay late in the library reading to him, Quinn relishing in absorbing all the knowledge he could from the stories and textbooks she would study. The girl would often use him as a study partner, Quinn giving her little yips or whines whenever she got an answer right or wrong. Life finally felt right.
True to form, however, it wasn’t to last. Quinn’s friend graduated all too soon for his liking and moved away to university, leaving the Braxien on his own. Desperate to find more knowledge he struck out from the library and found himself wandering the streets at all hours, often poking in on other pokemon’s conversations and arguments to prove someone wrong. He felt like he knew everything, and was determined to show the pokemon of his home how much they could accomplish if only they would listen to him. He began to gather a following, pokemon eager to be rid of Flare and to learn how to fight against them. Sometimes, if words weren’t enough, Quinn would find ways of tricking other pokemon into the resistance without them even realizing it. When he thought that they were numerous enough, Quinn led a revolt on the stationed Team Flare in their area and toppled their command center, the Braxien standing firm in the burning wreckage of their former base as they fled. He thought they had won, but he was soon to discover he was wrong.
Flare blamed the townsfolk for Quinn’s attack, chasing out several townspeople and burning down half of the buildings in order to teach them a lesson about defying their law. A few of his followers were even killed in example. When the smoke cleared Flare had already re-established themselves in the area and the town turned on the fox, furious that their lives were now even worse thanks to his actions. Quinn was banished, chased out into the wilderness once again and left to wander. And wander he did. For years he stalked in anger, attacking Flare whenever and wherever he saw them, eventually levelling into a Delphox and setting up his own ‘neutral zone’ where no member of Flare was allowed to cross without being attacked. It seemed like the anger would hold on to Quinn forever.
Long after the Delphox had reached adulthood a small child wandered into the forest he called home, getting herself terribly lost. Quinn heard of her from the numerous search parties that passed through his territory calling her name over and over….Anna. Pitying the weeping mother that every day joined in the search for her child Quinn decided to keep an eye out for the little girl around his territory, hoping that the girl hadn’t injured herself or gotten attacked by one of the more vicious pokemon that dwelled in the area. The temperatures began to drop rapidly as the search reached its fifth day, the chances of finding her alive now almost zero, but in the middle of the night as Quinn readied himself to sleep he heard a faint sobbing in the distance.
Pulling out his flaming wand the Delphox moved through the dark forest, tracking the sound even as it grew weaker. After almost an hour of chasing echoes he was about to give up when a glimmer of gold caught his eye through the bramble. Stepping closer he found the small child, barely five years old, huddled in a ball as she cried for her mother as she clung to the golden locket dangling around her neck. His heart softened at the sad sight and the fox knelt down beside the shivering girl, gently picking her up and cradling her into his fur. Her skin was like ice, lips turning blue from the cold, but Quinn didn’t let that deter him. He carried the girl back to his small den and tucked her inside, using his fire to create a warm blaze and wrapping her back up in his arms to get warm. Through the night that is where she slept, curled up against the fire type as he gently rocked back and forth in an effort to soothe her fearful heart.
The next morning there were no shouts for the child, no calls for Anna or the heartbreaking sobs of her mother. Quinn’s heart began to harden at the thought of the humans just giving up on their child and leaving her to die in the woods, not realizing that they had moved to a different section of the forest. He picked up Anna and carried her down to the nearby village, intending to confront the humans himself, when suddenly a loud scream pierced the air and made Quinn wince in pain. When he opened his eyes again he saw a woman shouting and running up to him, arms held out wide as she picked up speed. His first instinct was to step back and shelter Anna but he felt her rouse in his arms and turn towards the shouting woman. “Momma?” she whispered weakly, turning around slightly in his arms to get a better look. That was when Quinn saw that the woman was smiling as she screamed, tears streaming down her face as she reached him and the child and pulling her tightly into her arms.
This was Anna’s mother.
Quinn felt ashamed of himself for nearly keeping the child from her mother, ashamed that the idea of attacking her in defense had ever even crossed his mind. He should have seen the signs that were so obviously there. Those hadn’t been screams, she had been laughing, cries of joy that sent tears streaming down her face in relief from knowing her daughter was safe. She hadn’t been charging him, she had been running to embrace her child, to cradle her to her bosom as Quinn had been doing since last night. The realization that he had become so blind to the world struck the Delphox hard and he back away from the tender scene in horror, frightened of his own thoughts that could have led to Anna becoming an orphan. He didn’t expect Anna’s mother to stand up and hug him, tears soaking into his fur as she clung to the fox in thanks, but with that tender gesture he felt his resolve crumble and he hugged the tiny woman back in earnest. Her laughter at his response tickled his fur but he didn’t care, only letting go when he felt her tears dry and her own grip relax, waving fondly at them as she carried Anna back down the hill and into the town.
That moment Quinn carried with him for the rest of his days. He lived by that village for several years, watching Anna grow up and visiting his young friend often, but eventually he felt it was time to move on. Quinn realized he had never been happy staying put in one place, and so decided to make his way around the world learning everything he could. This is how he spent his life, learning and sharing everything he could and protecting those who couldn’t protect themselves. After the Epidemic hit that seemed to be everyone so now Flynn keeps his travels with a purpose, to save everyone he can and sharing with them all he knows for a chance at a future.
Even if he isn’t around to see it.
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