Chapter 7:
After having a good sleep with the Jumpluff duo and Roll that night, we woke up the next morning at the crack of dawn and knew we had to get ready to save Shiftry above all else. We proceeded to get some of our teammates that we had in the form of Magnemite and Geodude, mainly because both had good moves to use against Zapdos as well as having elemental resistances to his thunderous attacks. We then stocked up on Reviver Seeds, Oran Berries, and, of course, a couple Cheri Berries in case Zapdos had Thunderwave.
We then walked the whole way to Mount Thunder and we stopped at the entrance, looking up at the mountain pass in front of us. "Here we are. Mount Thunder, the location where we'll have to fight Zapdos and save Shiftry," I said with grit in my voice.
"Right, we're going to need to be as prepared as possible," Geodude said.
"Bzzt! No worries, we can handle it together! Bzzt!" Magnemite said with seriousness, me and my group then moving forward into the mountain itself. On the way through, we started to notice that a lot of the Pokemon were more rugged types such as male Nidoran, Phanpy, and even some Cacnea and Electrike, all of them being the Pokemon that ended up joining our team and all of them having a good move for each. Nidoran had Poison-inducing attacks, including Toxic, while Cacnea and Electrike had attacks that could raise their stats such as Howl (Electrike) and Growth (Cacnea) and some that lowered the opponents' stats such as Scary Face (Electrike) and Sand Attack (Cacnea). And Phanpy was not only immune to electrical attacks, but also had the nasty Rollout move!
We managed to reach an area that looked like a resting area after 10 floors and we saw something that looked like a giant rock in the shape of a Kangaskhan. "That's a Kangaskhan Rock. If you use it, you can access the items you stored in town in case we need any assistance," Roll explained.
"Interesting," I smirked, deciding to stop near it and get a couple more items in the form of some more Reviver Seeds just in case, since we had more members on our team. "Time to head out!" I smirked, our group moving forward through the next two floors with ease until we finally reached the surface of the mountain, where we saw the thunderclouds zapping all over the place above us. "Here we are, the summit... HEY! Zapdos! Come on out and give us back Shiftry and the Nuzleaf!" I exclaimed. It was then that Zapdos appeared from the thunderclouds with fury and it looked at me with a glare of intimidation.
"You are bold to challenge me! If you want to save your friend, you must defeat me in battle! COME ON!" Zapdos screeched as we then entered the fight and we were ready to attack. I rushed forward and used Cotton Spore on Zapdos, him gasping as he got slower than normal and giving Nidoran the perfect opportunity to use Toxic, Zapdos gasping at the fact we just badly poisoned him. Everyone then used their attacks on him all at once. From Ice Ball from Roll, to Rollout from Spheal, then Rock Slide from Geodude and Thundershock from Magnemite. And then, with one last attack, I used Body slam directly on Zapdos, me smirking as I managed to knock him directly to the ground and he looked to have been soundly trounced!
"W-What the hell's going on here?!" asked the voice of Charizard as he and the other members of Team IQ appeared from behind us. Zapdos then rose from the ground and looked like he was going to charge another attack, Charizard jumping in front of us and looking ready to fight.
"Enough! I'm finished fighting... you can have your friends back," Zapdos said as he then looked at me and Roll. "You kids have impressed me. I wasn't even holding back on that onslaught, but you managed to defeat me before I could land a single hit!... I have a funny feeling you two kids could be the key to finally stopping these disasters from happening... I'll give you a deal. If you can somehow stop these disasters, I shall join your Rescue Team. You deserve it," Zapdos said, me smirking at that widely.
"Done deal, Zapdos," I smirked at him as Zapdos then nodded and flew off into the distance, me seeing the forms of Shiftry and his Nuzleaf friends come from the thunder above us and lower to the ground.
"Shiftry! Are you alright? And your friends?" Roll asked as she went up to him.
"Ugh... yeah... I'm fine..." Shiftry said as the Nuzleaf then agreed with him.
"That was no small feat, you guys. Defeating the Legendary Zapdos with all of your combined strengths, despite all of your team being made up of non-evolved Pokemon. And he said he wasn't holding back and he didn't even get the chance to attack. You really are gonna give us a run for our money!" Tyranitar smiled at us widely.
"We couldn't have done it as good without our allies," I smiled at my fellow Pokemon members, them giggling at that as Alakazam stared at me.
"I believed that I'd sensed it before, but I wasn't sure until now... you're not really a Mareep, are you, Cher?" Alakazam asked me, me gasping and simply sighing and hanging my head at that.
"Tsk... I really wanted to keep that secret, you know? Thanks a whole lot," I frowned at him.
"Wait, then what are you?" Charizard asked.
"A human. One from a different world other than this one," I said, Shiftry and everyone being shocked at that. "And as for why I haven't told anyone, there are two reasons. Firstly, they may accuse me of being the same human that was part of the legend involving the Ninetails and the Gardevoir, which I am not. And second... well, who in the hell would believe me if I told them I was actually a human?" I asked with a frown.
"Hmm... I understand your concerns, young Cher... I have a suggestion to make to you," Alakazam said, me nodding at that. "If you wish to learn more about the tale of the human and the tale of Ninetails, you should go seek out the Hill of the Ancients. There you will find a Pokemon named Xatu, who looks into the sun all day every day without ever resting. He's said to know the future as well as the past of all previous events. He'd be able to shed more light on this situation," Alakazam said, me nodding my head at that.
"Okay, thanks for the intel, Alakazam," I smirked as we then looked at the group happily.
"I still can't believe that Zapdos offered to join our team if we can stop the natural disasters! Think about it. A Legendary Pokemon joining the ranks of Team Snowfleece! This is awesome!" Roll smiled happily.
"Hehe... I gave you kids too little credit before, honestly. If you could defeat the might of Zapdos with a team of non-evolved Pokemon, you could probably save the world from any kind of threat if you get more experience! Ah, it makes me think back to whenever I first joined Team IQ," Charizard smiled.
"No worries, Charizard. Come on, gang. Let's go back home. It's almost time for sunset to happen," I smirked, our group then dispersing afterwards with smiles of pride on our faces. We were definitely going to save the world from the disasters now, considering we could get Zapdos as a potential ally!