Hard Enough - Chapter 275 - Unexpected outcomes

“We’re going to need you to check the cave over there for the boys,” I announced as Zapdos twisted through the air, deftly avoiding yet another empowered launch of boulders. 

“There are also some hikers to the north of here, a group of campers slightly past them and another clutch of explorers that are going to be in danger due to the storm,” Sabrina said while gesturing to the north. I blinked in surprise. 

For a moment when Jules had first called me, I had considered simply asking her to rescue them and leaving the Legendary bird to rampage until it calmed down. Now that I knew there were more than a few groups in danger it suddenly became a lot more important that we bring this bird down, stall it, or make it run away. 

“Storm?” Roxanne asked only to blink in shock as the skies around Zapdos began to darken and roil as more and more lightning was discharged. 

The air began to shake as more lightning grew more powerful. 

It took seconds for a thunderstorm to be summoned out of nothing and through it all Sabrina and my own pokemon team unleashed boulder after boulder into the air as Alakazam acted as our sniper. 

The rest of Sabrina’s team acted to guide the boulder while my pokemon provided the muscle.

“I’d suggest not lingering as you will find a fight against a Legendary a different experience. Watch your surroundings as lightning blasts can cause widespread forest fires,” Sabrina remarked to our friends.

Missy gaped. “It’s true what they say, Legendary pokemon can change the land in seconds,” she whispered with an awe-filled tone. 

I snapped my fingers at her to get her to focus. “Yes, and that means you need to be extra careful. Get a pokemon out now that can protect you. We’re at long range now but pokemon like Zapdos can close distances insanely quickly.”

It was for that reason I hadn’t sent out Don. 

“Do not split the party so that you are by yourselves,” I stated firmly to the other four trainers. “There’s going to be a lot of danger and it's best you have someone to watch your backs.”

I glanced back at the Zapdos that was keeping its distance and forcing us to use long-range attacks on it. “Don’t use any Electrical attacks against it as the myths around it say that it grows stronger from them.”

Flannery released her Camerupt and Arcanine, the latter of which she mounted up on. 

Roxanne was quick to follow by releasing her own Probopass and Onix. The Probopass, despite starting with his head turned towards us, spun and locked onto the Zapdos which annoyingly was gaining height. 

“Going for Sky Attack,” I muttered and Sabrina nodded. “We’ll need to set up some lightning rods,” I said with a smirk towards some of my pokemon. Bertha continued to track the slowly approaching Legendary.

“They do fill that role rather well but then again I don’t think they’ve ever negated anything this strong,” Sabrina responded thoughtfully.

I hummed, looked like we’ll be putting their immunity and resistance to the test then.

I glanced back to the others, specifically Brawly who was lingering near us with a fighting spirit blazing in his eyes. “Brawly, you’re going to be best off rescuing people today. Sabrina and I? We’ve fought Legendaries before and we’ve prepared for this.”  

I looked over to Missy. “Missy, your Rhyperior is going to be your best friend for any stray electrical attacks.” 

Even as I said this a powerful bolt of lightning arced out from Zapdos and slammed into the ground. I could already see smoke coming up from patches of grass that found themselves suddenly on fire.

I glanced over to where Shrek was bulking himself up in preparation while my other pokemon shifted positions and prepared another attack.

“Shift to a buff-up sequence,” I ordered. Again I glanced back at our friends. “Wouldn’t hurt to do the same for your pokemon while you’re on the move.” 

Brawly frowned but nodded after another moment’s hesitation. 

He jogged up to Roxanne and mounted up behind her with his Breloom coming out and starting to hop along next to them as they departed. 

I turned my attention back to the Zapdos. “Got any idea how pissed off it is?”

“I can sense a lot of anger but nothing like the Moltres we faced, hopefully it will calm down and retreat,” Sabrina replied. 

“Speaking of,” I glanced around and hummed. “Is there going to be any interference from us being able to just lead it away and bail out?” I prompted. 

Sabrina turned and surveyed the hills and sheer cliff faces around us. While they were nothing compared to the silver ranges they were much more jagged in appearance meaning fewer people could traverse them. “There isn’t an oversaturation of dark energies, nor are there other pokemon we need to be fearful of antagonising,” she responded. 

Nice, we had our best retreat option. 

Not only that but being able to Teleport also gave us the option of performing a team-wide Teleport to reposition and come at Zapdos from another angle. I was starting to feel a lot more confident about our chances.

I was about to suggest Sabrina Teleport around and rescue some of the people only for the Zapdos to stop darting back and forth and building up an electrical storm around itself. 

“Oh good it’s…” I was about to suggest that it was a good thing that it was finally ready to fight but held off at the last moment. 

No need to tempt Murphy. 

Instead of rain we suddenly found ourselves facing a deluge of lightning from a bird that had been lazily soaring through the air. 

With a twitch of its wings, the sky flashed and lightning arced towards us on giant forking lines that seared the eyes as the thunder boomed and deafened us.

Jorm rose and roared in response while Bertha thrust her fist high into the air to absorb the incoming lightning away from the rest of the team.

A sizzle ran through the air and I smelt the ground smoke a little. 

A small Water Gun from Shrek ended the fire before it could become a threat but even as he released the water I noted how it sparked, gaining a small electrical charge. 

I quickly ordered him to keep any firefighting he did to as little water as possible. 

He nodded and on the next blast of lightning that Zapdos unleashed, Shrek flicked a spray of mud to put out the next spot fire. 

Ah, that worked a lot better. 

A shriek from Zapdos was the next line of attack but a wave of slightly transparent Barriers and Reflects blocked the effect beyond merely causing a slight headache. Which wasn’t much worse than all the light and noise the thunder and lightning it was discharging caused.

“It’s coming,” Sabrina informed and around us, our pokemon shifted once more into another pattern that had my pokemon buddying up with some of hers while Jorm positioned itself near us. 

Most of Sabrina’s team began to glow as they used Future Sight. Against another pokemon this level of preparation might have been considered overkill, but against a Legendary, it was something we now considered mandatory.

After the fight with Moltres and Mewtwo, I’d sat down with the other Guardians during training sessions and started running a lot of hypothetical scenarios for facing local Legendaries and some foreign Legendaries at them.

Sabrina and I had even been able to take it a step further by creating an action plan for what to do should we come up against yet another Legendary Bird. 

For all of them, there was a certain level of environmental hardship that you needed to account for. For both Zapdos and Moltres that usually meant fires of varying intensities. Zapdos also came with the risk of paralysis with its passing due to the electrical discharge. 

Surprisingly Articuno might be one of the harder fights for us despite the various type advantages due the the way it could cause hail, snow, and even drop temperatures so quickly to cause shock in people. 

Thankfully most tales of Articuno being violent only occurred during periods of intense international conflict or if the pokemon had been attacked. 

It was Zapdos and Moltres that had a historical precedence of being territorial but I liked to think that the data was skewed by the fact that Articuno chose nesting sites that were remote and expeditions into cold climates were tougher than simply hiking a mountain. 

With Zapdos closing on us, Jorm began to glow as I channelled aura into our bond as Sabrina did the same with her Alakazam. 

Zapdos stalled as both pokemon glowed and began to Mega Evolve in front of it. 

When both Jorm and Alakzam were revealed they both shifted. Jorm gave a warning growl while Alakazam brandished his spoons while a cluster floated around him.

For a moment I thought I could see a flicker of doubt enter Zapdos’ beady little eyes but then it snapped its wings forward and shrieked as it discharged more lightning at us. 

Bertha held up her hands and several powerful arcs of lightning jolted straight into her causing the ground around her to fry with the power that was being earthed. 

Bertha grinned up at the enraged Legendary and laughed causing it to look at her.

Which was a big mistake.

Instantly my pokemon team began to hurl rocks with Stone Edge and Rock Throw only to have them further empowered by Sabrina’s psychic team.

Sabrina’s team didn’t add much, just the gentlest of corrections with aim so that no friendly misfires occurred with boulders getting in each other’s way. 

Instead, Zapdos suddenly found itself facing a choice with no good options or ways to evade. 

It looked away from Bertha who I noted blew it a kiss as it realised just how screwed it was. 

The barrage of rocks slammed into it, bearing it to the ground and causing it to wail in pain.

It fell from the sky and tried to beat its wings to right itself causing waves of lightning to arc out only for each to be absorbed by either pokemon that were immune to it or by Sabrina’s layered defences.

It snapped its wings again and suddenly accelerated away. 

I frowned. “Is it retreating?” I asked knowing that we just hammered it with the attacks we got off.

Sabrina narrowed her eyes and grimaced. “It is still angered but it’s thinking now… Sadly it is going to put itself out of range of my pokemon’s Future Sight attacks,” she replied. 

I nodded, knowing that having those suddenly come out of nowhere would have been great for us. 

Zapdos pulled back and began to ascend. 

As the storm clouds grew darker and more ominous I hummed. “I think it’s just trying harder at smiting us. Retreat doesn’t seem like something it wants to do right now.”

Sabrina merely nodded. Her pokemon team once more performed Future Sight and my pokemon shifted. So that we were once more aligned in the U pattern.

We launched another giant boulder and Zapdos shrieked as it was suddenly forced to dodge an attack it thought itself safe from.

“Come on, back down,” I muttered before glancing around. The hill we’d started on now had a lot of broken trees caused by wayward lightning and rock strikes. Most of them were smouldering in some manner. 

I cast my gaze up to the slowly building clouds. 

“It doesn’t have a nest nearby does it?” I asked. 

Sabrina shook her head. “I couldn’t read its intentions beyond its anger. It wants to destroy us and is furious at our defiance.”

Hmmm that didn’t rule out that it might be defending an egg. “Hmmmm, is everyone else out to a safe enough distance?” I asked as I watched the ground as things began to darken. Where before the clouds were merely black, now they seemed to leech the daylight as cracks and booms began to echo down to us. I felt the thunder in my bones. 

As rain began to fall I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I continued to stare at the sky, watching as it rumbled and flashed as lightning began to build up. 

Zapdos wove and dove beneath the clouds for a moment and seemed to cruelly smirk at us before rising up out of sight once more. 

I sighed. “Yeah, it figures that it would try to do this.” 

Sabrina nodded, knowing exactly what was about to happen next thanks to the historical records of fights with Zapdos. “Everyone else is safe,” she reported.

She and I shared a look and then we held hands and returned some of our pokemon before vanishing in a Teleport.

We reappeared a few kilometres to the west facing the hill we’d just been on. The clouds were still overhead but thanks to the shift we were well out of danger from errant lightning strikes.

I watched as the clouds began to flash in a steadily faster fashion as more and more lightning built up. 

Sabrina and I shifted, sharing a look.  

It almost felt a little awkward not standing and fighting and part of my soul railed at not doing precisely that. 

A saner, more intelligent part of me however knew that this was the better play. We’d tried scaring it off with the paired Mega evolutions and that hadn’t worked. We’d demonstrated we weren’t easy targets and if anything Zapdos had doubled down on us. 

So, the best play was to not face it if we didn’t have to.

We’d decided that if people or pokemon’s lives were in danger then we might step in, but if the Legendary was just there was there a need to fight it?

I pulled out some fold-up chairs from my pouch and set them down before pulling out some pokemon chow for the others. We then both dropped our Mega Evolutions so we weren’t wasting Aura. 

A gigantic flash of light swept out as Zapdos discharged the mother of all Thunders. 

Bertha clapped appreciatively and I held in a laugh at her antics before shaking my head. The niggling feeling was still there. “Is it wrong that I feel a bit bad that we left Zapdos high and dry with the fight?” I asked. 

“No, it’s just normal battle lust for us. Part of me wanted to test ourselves against Zapdos but I can recognise that is a crude childish part of me. Fighting that Zapdos served no purpose for us beyond rescuing the trainers that had ventured too close. Also I prefer being able to hear,”

“And everyone is safe?” I repeated, still unsure that things had worked out for us as the Zapdos unleashed a second powerful Thunder that caused the day to brighten a little more. 

Huh, it was really going all out. The first clap of thunder rolled over us and I whistled. 

Damn, Sabrina was right, even if we’d negated that attack we’d still have been blinded and deafened from the intensity of it.

“Yes, they got to safety and are heading south towards Lavender Town, or for the people behind us Cerulean,” Sabrina replied. 

I hummed and settled in to watch as Zapdos unleashed a third and subsequent final Thunder. 

The second thunderclap rolled in before the first could finish and it was, if anything, louder. 

I whistled. “Third one is going to be a doozy,” I said as I mentally counted down how many seconds it was between the third flash and hearing it. 

The third thunderclap came in as more of an explosion than a mere rumble. The ground around us shook and both Sabrina and I vibrated a little in our chairs. If we’d been standing we might have even stumbled a bit. 

A small yellow dot descended out of the low-lying clouds and swept around the area where we had made our stand. It shot upwards after a long arc only to rise and flash out another lightning arc. 

I tilted my head as the yellow dot that was Zapdos flew in a circle. 

“Is it… celebrating?” I asked slowly. 

Sabrina paused while eating her chips, her chip hung in the air, held by her telekinesis. “Oh… bless its heart it thought it was going to wipe us out with those attacks.”

Around us, our pokemon chuckled in appreciation and Bertha even made a rude gesture towards the distant Zapdos.

I tilted my head. “Kinda bold of it. Then again it might not care about type advantages with the local pokemon not really having too much to deal with, unless it was going south but even then the Geodude and Onix would be more than happy staying in their caves than contending with a Zapdos.”

We watched Zapdos fly around and I drew out a pokedex to record it as it began flying loops and twirls around itself in what must have been its victory celebration. 

“Does sitting here watching it celebrate make you feel bad knowing that it is sort of making a fool of itself?” I asked. 

“No,” Sabrina replied easily. 

“I feel a little bad for it, but at the same time I don’t think we’ve ever had the chance to just… back off from a fight?” I commented. 

Sabrina nodded. “We have either been the ones applying pressure to others or been in bad situations where Teleporting out was… not a possibility.”

I suppressed the part of me that railed at how we’d chosen to end the fight and instead cracked open a lemonade. “It’s something I could get used to,” I stated before taking a rather enjoyable sip. 

In the distance, Zapdos continued to blow waves of lightning into the air. 

“I certainly wouldn’t have liked being underneath those Thunders,” I said.

Bertha leaned forward and slapped her chest a few times in the most signature ‘I coulda taken it!’ gesture I think I’d ever seen.

I pulled up a water bottle and took a long pull before spitting some water in her face which made her reel back. “That doesn’t hurt but do you want to face it?” I replied. 

Sabrina shot me a disapproving look. “That was disgusting. Never do that again.”

I coughed and wiped my mouth while Bertha smirked at me. I rolled my eyes and looked back to Zapdos as it flew around smugly only to pause and begin flying in our direction. “It can’t see us from here… can it?” I asked as a pit began to form in my stomach. We were kilometres away! 

Sabrina and I sat up as a shriek of rage tore itself out of Zapdos’ beak. 

“Ah,” I said intelligently. “I think it saw us.”

Sabrina nodded and rose. “Well so much for doing this the easy way,” she said. 

I stood up and the chairs folded in on themselves and rose into my pack without Sabrina even paying attention to them. 

I kept my gaze locked on the rapidly approaching Zapdos as it began to drag the storm with it.

Damn, it stood to reason it could see us. If a Pidgeot and a Fearow could see a Rattata in a field from on high then a Zapdos must have had even better visual acuity. 

Our team of pokemon once more began to prepare themselves. Bertha looked giddy at the prospect of getting to beat up a Legendary Bird and I just set my feet. 

Damn, we’d tried, but this electric chicken was determined to fight with someone now that it had been roused.

As it came on Sabrina set her pokemon to perform another round of Future Sights before Barriers and Reflects came into effect just in time to intercept the first wave of lightning. 

This time Zapdos stayed high, but not so high that we could lob waves of rock up at it. 

Despite our best attempts at staggering and setting out a wide spread it tucked and dove and floated on thermals so well it was able to evade all of our attacks. 

“Detect?” I shouted to Sabrina over the sound of thunder. 

Sabrina nodded but there was a glint in her eyes. “Prepare to end it! It’s within range!” she shouted back. 

I grinned realising that she was right, while Zapdos was keeping its distance it wasn’t too far this time around. It was dodging marvellously and sending bolts of lightning crashing down at us but nothing was actually causing any harm. 

Oh, it was tearing up the field and creating spot fires but otherwise nothing to us.

Bertha was even patting her chest and spreading her arms wide only for me to blink in surprise as I caught sight of both Knight and Titan copying her.

Oh wait they were literally both using Taunt. 

Zapdos grew more enraged at their gestures of disrespect and began to build up more charge only for a sudden flash of pink psychic energy to flash out of nothing and slam into it. 

Zapdos cried out in pain and flapped, trying to gain altitude in what I expected would result in Roost. If it and Moltres shared tricks then it was possible it could perform the hovering Roost.

Except it shouldn’t work. Not after Taunt. 

I knew it wouldn’t work as did Sabrina, but Zapdos as a wild pokemon wouldn’t.

Zapdos entered the dark clouds only for a shrill cry of rage to ring out.

Heh, it had still tried it, I thought, amused at this result while also kicking myself that I hadn’t added Taunt into my pokemon’s movepool earlier. 

Zapdos had still placed itself out of what it assumed would be our range of attack. 

Instead of trying for another Rock Cannon team attack, we went for something… a little more grandiose and final.

Sabrina pointed at where Zapdos was hiding within the low hanging clouds and I nodded as rocks began to rise around us. 

Titan began to crouch only to squawk in surprise as Bertha beat him to it. She flooded the bond with a firm reminder that she was the only pokemon able to make the jumps that was immune to the lightning. 

That didn’t stop me from holding my breath as she ascended into the sky, leaping from rock to rock. Each jump caused the rocks behind her to sag and fall away and before long she was right at where the cloud hung and the Zapdos screeched in rage as it failed to perform its recovery move. 

Bertha leapt, fist pulling back with a savage grin as she entered the clouds.

For a moment nothing happened and I felt my heart still in fear.

Then a roar of triumph boomed out of the cloud as Bertha appeared once more, only this time she had Zapdos clutched in her fists a demented look of glee in her eyes as she bore him down.

Zapdos could only stare in shock as she held it by the neck, lightning coursing off their forms only for it to do nothing to her. 

Bertha rode Zapdos into the earth and they impacted like a small meteor. I reached out and caught Sabrina in my arms to protect her from the shockwaves only for her to lift us both up off the ground telekinetically.

A moment later a wave of dust washed over us and Sabrina turned her head into my chest to avoid most of it while I ignored it, more than used to handling poor visibility. I urged my pokemon to close in around where I knew Bertha to be and they sprinted through the dust causing more rumbles as they tore through the sparsely vegetated area. 

Sabrina lowered us and we walked cautiously forward with Selene and Alakazam hovering next to us. 

A pained warble let me know where to look as the dust cleared.

Sabrina and I both paused on the edge of a small crater. 

In the middle, Bertha stood with both feet planted on Zapdos’ wings while one arm held it by the neck. Another was held up in front of Zapdos’ face curled into a fist that promised a swift and violent end to this fight if Zapdos so much as twitched. 

Titan stood so that one leg was pinned while Knight held the other. Sanchez hovered behind them, ready to act but not willing to touch a more powerful electric type lest he be drained.

Lightning arced all over Bertha’s form and she twitched in a manner that let me know that while she was immune to most electrical attacks the same couldn’t be said for directly holding a Zapdos by the throat. Her body seemed to be overloading. 

I waved Sanchez forward from where he was hovering and had him reach out and grasp Bertha’s tail.

The instant he did that he lit up like a christmas light and lightning began to arc between the twin outcroppings atop his body. He grinned like a loon. “Go Go Golem!” he chanted as though pleased with this development. 

Bertha relaxed as the intensity of the lightning building up around her died away. 

I took a long moment to take everything in.

I hadn’t really been able to judge Zapdos while it had been flying overhead, but now that it was laid out with my pokemon pinning it down I could see that Zapdos was a bit of a monster in terms of size. 

It would have easily been bigger than me if it were to stand. I pulled out the pokedex I carried with me these days and toggled it to Zapdos’ entry. 

Huh, the known height of Zapdos were thought to be a metre sixty. This pokemon was almost double that. Must have been a juvenile that they observed for the data. 

Zapdos twitched, glancing this and that way casting hate-filled glares at my pokemon before growling when it noticed Sabrina and I. Selene and Alakazam shifted to be closer in case anything happened. 

Bertha backhanded Zapdos to get it to stop. It turned back to her and shrieked in rage but she just snorted in contempt at its attempt to cow her.

“What now Brock?” Sabrina prompted and I blinked as what we’d just done set in for me. 

We’d just brought a Legendary Bird out of the sky. It was weakened and drained and couldn’t simply evade us like Moltres had so many months ago. 

Damn, it hadn’t even been a year and here we were.

I inspected Zapdos. 

In the games you only ever had one chance to catch a bird when you first triggered a battle with it. Then it was gone forever. In the game, you were expected to use a Masterball on it or one of the other Legendaries you’d encounter otherwise you might end up throwing a lot of pokeballs. 

I drew out an Ultra ball and considered it for a moment. 

I could catch a Legendary pokemon here and now.

Sabrina didn’t say anything, merely watched. 

My own pokemon seemed to go still as they caught on to the significance of me drawing out an Ultra Ball. 

I could do it. I could catch a Legendary pokemon here and now…

I looked into Zapdos’ eyes and saw that the anger had been replaced with terror. 

I blinked in surprise. “Is it… scared?” I asked incredulously. 

Sabrina tilted her head. It took her a few moments to reply which I took as a sign that Sabrina was working to get through whatever passive abilities it had. “It is. It doesn’t want to be captured.” 

“Does it have a nest with an egg nearby?” I wondered, thoughts spiralling towards potentially having young to look after.

Sabrina held a hand out to Zapdos while her other hand rested on her temple. “No? It is confused by your thoughts that it might have an egg.” 

I tilted my head. In the games a lot of the Legendary pokemon were genderless or ‘Gender Unknown’ did that mean they reproduced asexually? Or were they like Phoenix of legends from my old life where they were reborn in flame and restarted their lives?

If that was the case would that mean we’d be taking one out of the world with no chance of it returning until it was released in the future?

What would that mean?

To give myself time I gestured to Zapdos. “Do you want to capture it?” I asked Sabrina. I shouldn’t fool myself. I never would have had this chance if it weren’t for Sabrina.

Sabrina shook her head straight away. “No. I have no desire to catch such a pokemon. I do not think it desires it either. It would be strong but it would not be a true teammate for my pokemon and I.”

I nodded at that. The same would be true of me. Maybe if Visquez was here I’d have offered her to capture it. She might have been able to get over the rough start but even then I doubted it. 

I shook my head and returned the Ultra Ball to my pouch. “We’re not going to capture it,” someone said and it took me a moment to realise I’d been the one to speak. 

I worked my jaw for a moment, processing it even as part of my railed at the decision. I shared a look with Sabrina. She nodded and I turned back to my pokemon.

“Everyone, let go of Zapdos and step back,” I said, matching words with actions I stopped back while keeping my eyes focused on Zapdos. 

My pokemon followed my orders with Bertha taking a moment to stare Zapdos down before letting go. 

She stepped back and Zapdos spun up onto its feet. It glared at everyone around it and its jagged feathers swept through the air but it didn’t let out any attacks. Instead, it glanced around assessing and evaluating us. 

It took a long moment to stare at me before shrieking.

Sabrina frowned. “It thinks you’ve come to steal the rest of the spoils it claimed,” she said.

I tilted my head. “I’ve never seen this pokemon in my life though?”

Sabrina nodded. “I know that but it seems to be mistaking you for someone else.”

Zapdos tossed its head and looked pointedly at Titan before looking back at me. 

Sabrina nodded slowly. “It says people like you have come before from the north…” 

I sucked in a breath of air in surprise. “It thinks I’m part of the crusher tribe,” I said as I recalled the wall art from Empress’ old cave. It had told the stories of a tribe that wandered and encountered the three legendary pokemon. 

Apparently, this Zapdos had… What, done battle with them? Was this Zapdos as old as Empress? No, Empress had been a baby pokemon when they’d created those artworks. 

Zapdos must be older…

Oh damn, that recontextualised Sabrina and I bailing on it from us watching a Legendary flail around to watching a geriatric pokemon flail around. 

Ouch, sorry Grandpa Zapdos! Hope you didn’t pull a wing or something… I thought to myself before correcting myself. Legendaries were supposed to be stronger as they got older… So did that mean this Zapdos was a juvenile?

I suddenly wasn’t sure what to make of this Zapdos. It certainly wasn’t as strong as the Moltres we faced in the Silver mountain ranges but part of that had to do with the circumstances as well. 

The idea of this Zapdos being weaker because it was younger made more sense to me than my phoenix idea but it might be worth floating past Oak.  

Zapdos considered our group as Sabrina continued to commune with it. “It is glad, the last time humans came they snuck in during the night and stole from it instead of fighting it honourably,” Sabrina smirked. “Apparently it doesn’t like that we avoided its strongest attack…” Sabrina glanced at me. “I’m getting the impression this Zapdos is a bit of a battle lover,” she said quietly. 

I snorted in amusement. If it was as old as I suspected, that might make a bit of sense. “So it’s had interactions with the Crusher tribe in the past?” I asked. 

So it was as old as Empress then? Or older if I read into the cave art I’d seen at any rate… But still a juvenile? Did that mean this Zapdos was like mythical elves then with their long lifespans meaning two hundred years was merely their teenage phase?

Sabrina turned back to the Zapdos who shifted and glanced at our various pokemon. It chirped and Sabrina frowned as it began to talk. 

“It has. Apparently, the Crusher Tribe stayed a while in the land only to attempt to claim its valley as their own. Zapdos fought them and took away their greatest treasure of the time only for a thief to later come and steal the crown jewel of the treasure back during one of its… naps?” Sabrina tilted her head. “I’m getting the idea that Zapdos sort of goes through periods of long rests, sort of like hibernation,” she stated. 

“Zaaaaaa!” screeched the Zapdos as it rose up proudly. 

I glanced at Sabrina when Zapdos didn’t make any moves to attack us.

“Zapdos seems to be of the opinion,” Sabrina intoned, “that we should be entitled to its treasure now that we defeated it.”

“Huh, so it’s going to give us treasure for beating it?” I said. “Alright tell it we accept.” i shifted, unable to hold back my next question. “And ask it how old it is.”

Sabrina blinked at me but relayed my question. 

Zapdos took a moment after Sabrina was done only to tilt its head.

“Many summers and winters old,” Sabrina said for it. 

I sighed, nodding along. Of course it wouldn’t be able to give me a nuanced answer. 

Zapdos inspected us for a while before it swept its wings twice to lift off the ground.

It flew back in the direction it had come only for a few minutes to pass before it came back with a large sack of old worn leather in its beak. 

It dropped the sack at our feet and hovered in the air only to swipe its wings once and two feathers to slam into the ground where they discharged electrical energy. 

“It also gifts us this as a sign of its approval,” Sabrina said as the Zapdos turned and wheeled back to where it had come from.

I watched it go for a moment only to cast my eyes at the sack that was easily as big as my torso along with the two feathers of Zapdos. 

“Did we just get loot for beating a Legendary?” I asked. 

Sabrina tilted her head and snorted. “It appears so.”

I whistled. Damn, now a part of me wanted to hunt down that Moltres and make it pay me what it owed me. I watched as Zapdos flew away. Turned out it wasn’t a bad pokemon at all, just that it had its own code. 

I could respect that. 

Now, time to see what it gifted us. 

For some odd reason, I suddenly felt like a kid on Christmas morning. 

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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for this chapter. For those curious the wall art Brock is talking about is back in Chapter 120 - Ancient History and new challenges. 

Thanks go to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!