A/N: This is a collection of one-shots for the Legendary Muses contest. This round was Zapdos. Thanks to Celebi96 and Quaystor for the inspiration. Enjoy!
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A boom of thunder jolted Shaymin from her slumber. The small legendary curled into a tight ball out of fear. The only sounds she could hear now were her own breathing and the uneven pitter-patter of raindrops on the roof of her burrow. She resolved to lie back down and resume her sleep, but just before she did so, a flash of lightening lights up the sky. Shaymin looked out of the mouth of the burrow, anticipating another flash any second, but what she did see is instead quite different.
Emerging from the clouds was a giant yellow and black bird with sharp, spiky feathers. It's wings crackled with electricity, and lightning bolts seemed to come from it. Shaymin knew that it could only be one thing: The Lord of Lightening, Zapdos himself.
But there was something strange about the electric bird's flight. His wing beats were uneven, and he seemed to be stumbling or limping through the sky as most Pokemon would on land. There was definitely wrong. Perhaps he was hurt?
Shaymin's suspicions were confirmed as all of a sudden, the Lightning Lord fell out of the sky, plummeting towards the ground like a shooting star, the light radiating from him only adding to this. There was a loud thump and a small explosion of sorts when he collided with the earth.
Shaymin's eyes widened. She knew that Zapdos would probably sooner eat her than let her help him, but being the gutsy little hedgehog she was, she decided to take the risk. On her short stubby hedgehog feet, Shaymin dashed towards Zapdos as fast as she could, and finally reached the spot where he had crashed.
"Ar-Are you alright?" Shaymin asked as soon as she was sure she was within earshot of him. The thunderbird only groaned in reply, meaning that he obviously wasn't.
The Flower Legendary was starting to have regrets about ever setting foot out of her nice cozy burrow. But what was done was done, and she couldn't change the past. Sometimes she really envied Celebi and Dialga, with their time traveling…. Shaymin resolved to attempt and drag Zapdos to safety, not that most sane creatures would be out on the night of a storm like this, but she was sure that Zapdos was not going to be very comfortable in his current state.
Another moan of pain from the larger legendary brought the flower hedgehog out of her reverie and Shaymin immediately bit onto one of Zapdos' wings, and feebly attempted to drag him to a nearby cave that she hoped the giant bird would fit into. As expected, the tiny green legendary failed in this task.
"I… I can move well en-enough," A voice suddenly rasped. Shaymin looked around, only to see Zapdos glaring at her. The yellow bird hobbled to it's feet, then slowly, step by step, walked to the cave as Shaymin pointed him in the right direction, looking like an oversized injured Torchic in the process.
As soon as he was inside the cave, the lightening bird collapsed to the floor, whether it was because of fatigue or pain no one will ever know. Shaymin scurried in after him, looking pitifully small compared to the yellow legendary. Zapdos winced before glaring at her again.
"What are you doing?"
Shaymin felt a pang of irritation. She had just tried to save this ungrateful excuse for a legendary's life, and now he was glaring at her like that? What a charming fellow. Now Shaymin saw why his sister's didn't like him. "Well excuse me, Mr. 'I-can-move-well-enough'-then-collapses-to-the-floor! I just tried to save your life out there, despite the fact that I knew you could have eaten me on sight, and that there's an insane storm going on outside! I was the one who directed you to this cave, moron! Without me, you'd be still in your landing spot, moaning with pain, stuck in a storm, got it buster?" She retorted, letting her meaner side show.
Zapdos opened his beak, and a sound between a caw and cackle came from his mouth. Shaymin was confused. What was this, some sort of death cry? Was he dying?
After the thunderbird finally stopped he looked at Shaymin, amusement in his eyes. "Hm, they can say all about you they want, but you've got spunk, I'll give ya' that. Not as docile as everyone thinks, I guess," He laughed, and then noticed the strange look she was giving him. "What? Never seen a thunderbird laugh before, Shay?"
He was… Laughing?
Shaymin blushed. She couldn't believe that she had mistaken his laugh for a death cry. "Oh," She managed to spit out.
Zapdos' expression turned hostile again. "Well, where am I? And why did you help me?" He demanded.
The tiny green hedgehog looked at the ground. "You're in Flower Paradise, which is in Sinnoh," She replied, "I helped you because it was the right thing to do."
Zapdos let out another 'laugh', but this time, it was as sharp as steel, not that Shaymin could tell much difference between the 'laughs', but it was more the expression in his eyes that told Shaymin that this was not a joyful laugh.
"The right thing to do, huh? I haven't heard anyone say that in a long time…" He muttered, more to himself than Shaymin. "Well, are you going to help me or what? I mean, being in pain and crash landing isn't fun, even if it is in a flower meadow."
Shaymin nodded, then started off with aromatherapy. "This should heal you if you have any status problems," She explained. "Just breathe deeply and let the aromatherapy work its magic."
After several minutes of silence, Shaymin couldn't help asking, "So… What happened to you?"
Zapdos grunted, and hesitated before asking, "Are you sure you want to know?"
"Sure."
"It's a long story…"
"I got time."
"Persistent little thing, aren't you? Alright… I was… We were attacked, Articuno, Moltres and I, by some human in this metal airship. He was some nutcase, I think his name was Lawrence III or something along the lines of that. He had these metal rings… They surround you, and then they infect you with some kind of ray or beam… You can't move, or resist. You just get surrounded and trapped.
"That human knew how to defeat us. He came for us one by one, took us on individually. The first one to go was Moltres. Then when I went to check her island out… I 'claimed' it, just as a joke to see if she would come out from her hiding spot in a rage. I couldn't have been more wrong. That human… He managed to do what I had thought impossible – no, unthinkable- before then. He… He captured me."
At this point, Zapdos' eyes were glazed over in reminiscence, and he stared out of the cave, as if there was something out there waiting to get him. Shaymin just sat there quietly and let the Lightening Lord continue his tale.
"It's a scary feeling, you know? You can't do anything, you have absolutely no freedom, and you're confined. Moltres had lost all hope then, she was just sitting there, accepting her fate and probably quietly devising a plan in her head. She's that sort. But not me, I kept struggling. I- I need my freedom. I'd die without it, Shay. I can't imagine life without it. Even if I know it's hopeless, I'll keep on fighting.
"To make a long story short, in the end Lugia and some random human with an annoying Pikachu had to intervene and restore peace by stealing the three orbs from the islands while the three of us, Articuno, Moltres and I, fought. Everything became hunky-dory again."
Shaymin looked at Zapdos. "But… What's wrong? I still don't get why you're here. If Lugia fixed everything, then… Why are you hurt? Why were you flying here?" She asked, her confusion evident in her expression.
Zapdos laughed coarsely again. "This is the part where it gets interesting," He said, expression bitter.
"I was… Scared. I didn't want to be caught again, so I ran away. On Lightening Island, everyone knew I lived there, so it would be easy for some random human to take a boat there, pop into my cave, then try to catch. I can't risk that. I just can't be captured again. I'll die, Shay, I can't lose my freedom. I refuse to be some human's little Snubble. I… I ran away so that I could hide," The not-so-high-and-mighty Lightening bird admitted quietly, hanging his head.
"I know I'm a coward, and I hate myself for it. But I just need somewhere to hide, to lay low for a while, until I can get over this. Somewhere I can train as well, so I can get stronger, so that a human will never defeat me. Just now, when I was looking for a place to stay, a human already spotted me and set his Rhyperior on me. I was tired after flying for days, and as one might imagine, I didn't do so well since I have weaknesses just like any other Pokemon… The rest is history. I managed to escape, albeit barely, that was one strong Rhyperior, and ended up here," Zapdos concluded.
Shaymin looked at the bird legendary. The little hedgehog managed to whisper, "Well…. You can stay here until you get better, and I have a Pikachu friend who knows an abandoned human power plant in Kanto… It's quite a nice place for electric-types, and no humans ever go there…" She looked him in the eyes as she said this. "Maybe… You would want to choose that as your temporary hiding spot?"
Zapdos paused for a moment, thinking, then nodded, gratitude in his eyes. "Thanks, Shay. You got spunk, that's for sure."
"You bet, big bird."
A/N: Hmm…. I didn't expect it to turn out as romance-ish… I hope this was okay… -crosses fingers- Well, wish me luck! XD Ray, over and out!