"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the Ringworm?" I asked Maddie and her sister Adrienne for about the tenth time that minute. We were seated on the floor of their bedroom, working on yet another world geography paper as I complained endlessly about the Ringworm's unfairness.
Yeah, I was talking about my obnoxious geography teacher Mrs. Rengwald, not a fungal disease. At least, I'm pretty sure ringworm's caused by a fungus. How should I know? Adrienne's the go-to person about that stuff, not me. I can't even be bothered to use my powers as Uxie, the Being of Knowledge, to find out useless information like that. But that's a different story.
See, not too long ago, I had been arguing with my best friends Maddie and Adrienne over which of the three Spirit Pokémon—Uxie, Mesprit, or Azelf—had the best power. I stuck up for Uxie because, well, if you don't have knowledge, then what do you have? Maddie argued in favor of Mesprit, the Being of Emotion, while Adrienne was all for Azelf, the Being of Willpower.
Of course, we found out pretty soon that these powers—knowledge, emotion, and willpower—were equally important. But that's only because we transformed into the three Spirit Pokémon and were later forced to face our own Inner Evils. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. And that wasn't the last time we would meet up with the Inners: In our second encounter with them, those three nutcases captured Adrienne and invaded her soul in order to steal her Azelf powers. The whole ordeal ended with Darkrai, the Lord of the New Moon, sacrificing his life to save us... although I think he mainly wanted to save Maddie. But again, that's a different story.
After a few minutes of working in sullen silence, I repeated, "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the Ringworm?"
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Adrienne threw her hands in the air and gave me a mock glare. "If I hear another word out of you that doesn't relate to this paper, I'm going to rip out your tongue and make you eat it!"
"Hey, how am I supposed to eat without a tongue?" I protested, giggling like an idiot. I laugh at the stupidest things sometimes.
"You'll figure something out," Adrienne said. "Or have you already forgotten that you can turn into the Being of Knowledge?"
"Huh, it doesn't help that we haven't been back to the mind-world since our little trip to the core of your evil, evil soul to beat up our dear friends the Inners." Cresselia, the Pokémon who had helped us kick the Inners out of Adrienne's soul, had also given us the power to turn back into our Spirit Pokémon forms at will. Later, though, Cresselia had told us that there was a catch to this: we could only transform while in the mental world.
It just kind of felt like a total rip-off, you know?
"I hope we're called to fight the Inners again," Maddie said in a flat tone. "When I get my hands on those three, they'll be sorry they were ever dreamed up. I guarantee it."
An awkward pause stretched out into a grim silence. I found myself unable to look Maddie in the face, so I just quietly went back to work.
Ever since our last battle with the Inners, something in Maddie had changed. It was obvious that she wasn't about to forgive the Inners for killing Darkrai, and nobody blamed her for that. Still, it was almost scary, that look she got in her eyes whenever Adrienne or I mentioned the Inners. Almost... inhuman.
At last, Adrienne spoke up, not bothering to look up from her work. "You're not the only one here who has a bone to pick with the Inners. Remember that."
"I know," Maddie said, pausing briefly. "Do what you want with the others," she added darkly, "but Inner-Maddie is mine."
"Well, that about does it," said Adrienne about an hour later. "How does this sound?" She read her geography paper aloud. It wasn't a terribly exciting subject, something about deltas and rivers and the water cycle, but Adrienne managed to make it mildly interesting.
"That's pretty good. I kind of don't even know what I'm writing about," I said, holding up my pathetic paper with a sheepish grin.
Maddie craned her neck sideways to see the first couple of lines. " 'I think that the use of paper for homework assignments is a deplorable waste of trees,' " she read aloud, actually cracking a smile for once.
Adrienne burst out laughing. (Somehow I figured she would.) "Tiger, I'm surprised you even know the word 'deplorable,' " she choked out between gasps of hilarity.
"Heeeey, not nice! For your information I know plenty of big words! Ah, uh, let's see, well, there's..."
Abominable, abhorrent, vile, loathsome, detestable, contemptible, despicable!
"Yes, thank you, I was just about to say those," I said. Then I froze. "Wait a minute—wh-who said that?" Adrienne and Maddie shrugged, eyes wide with bewilderment.
A second later, the shadows at the edges of the bedroom began to creep up the walls like a living oil spill. I recognized the phenomenon instantly.
"Looks like we're on a one-way trip to the mind-world," Adrienne warned us needlessly.
The shadows reached the ceiling quickly, enveloping the room in darkness for a few moments. Then it was like someone had switched on the mother of all floodlights, turning the world almost blindingly white. The mental world.
Only, this time was different. I said something real intelligent, like "Uuuhbubah," at the incredible sight. It was hard to take in the spectacle all at once.
It seemed almost every legendary Pokémon in existence had gathered in one place, though I couldn't pick out Cresselia or the real Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres all stood together, flaring their wings and clacking their beaks angrily at us, then turning to one another to mutter something. Next to them were Raikou, Entei, and Suicune, baring their fangs and growling menacingly. Hovering nearby were Lugia and Ho-Oh, glowering at the three of us, eyes burning with rage. Every other Legendary was glaring at us in the same way, though why, I couldn't begin to imagine. What could we have done that was so bad?
"Order! I demand order!" a voice boomed from somewhere in the throng of Legendaries. My teeth rattled from the force of the voice. Immediately the cacophony fell silent, and the crowd parted. A Pokémon stepped forward, and the blood froze in my veins as I immediately recognized it.
It was Arceus.
Absolute silence reigned; every eye, human and Legendary, was fixated on the Alpha Pokémon, the Original One who had created all Pokémon.
"Humans," it boomed, "you know why you are here."
"Um, no, actually, but it would be real nice of you to explain," I thought, but I didn't dare speak.
Dialga and Palkia, the Rulers of Time and Space, stepped into view, each heavy footfall making the invisible floor tremble. Palkia spoke. "You stand here accused of murder!"
Cries of rage swept the crowd once more. "Kill the murderers!" shouted Darkrai. My head snapped over to Maddie, who stared straight ahead with open-mouthed disbelief. This wasn't the same Darkrai who'd sacrificed his life to save her, but seeing a Darkrai now calling for her death must have been horrible. Despite my own growing sense of panic, I felt a twinge of pity.
Incredibly, Adrienne found the voice to speak up. "And who exactly are we supposed to have murdered?"
"Do not feign stupidity, human!" Dialga roared. "Giratina's death is a blow to both the living and spirit realms. Have you any idea what you may have set in motion?!"
"Giratina? What?! We've never even met him, much less gotten the chance to attack him!" Adrienne yelled. "Listen, is there even any proof that we did something like this? I mean, come on!"
This gave the Legendaries pause. They spoke amongst themselves for a few minutes as the three of us stood and waited in anguished silence. Finally Regigigas spoke up. "Three humans matching your descriptions were seen by Heatran entering Turnback Cave. As no one was able to contact Giratina afterward, we assumed the worst."
"You assumed." Adrienne's eyes blazed with fury to match anything the Legendaries were feeling. I could tell she was about to freak out when Cresselia and the real Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf exploded onto the scene, shouting things like "What's going on here?" and "We were not consulted!"
"These humans stand trial for the murder of Giratina," said Arceus. "There was no doubt that you four would be biased in their favor, and therefore you were not consulted beforehand."
"Biased? Biased? And you were going to have them killed?" hollered Cresselia.
"Honestly," sputtered Mesprit, "what has this Court come to? Of course these humans didn't kill Giratina!"
"It must have been their Inner Evils," said Uxie, folding its arms thoughtfully. "The Inners' plan to frame the three girls for a crime they did not commit was most masterful, I must admit."
"And they're not going to get away with it," said Azelf forcefully, golden eyes shining with anger, "because we're going after them!"
"Oh no, you're not." There were gasps and whispering among the Legendaries as Heatran stepped out. "Not without me, anyway. Giratina was my best friend. I will never forgive his murderers!" The Heatran's voice was higher-pitched than I would have expected, and I felt certain it was female.
"Not so fast," boomed Arceus. "To be cleared of all charges, the accused must prove their own innocence. They are to be the ones who seek the true murderers." Its glowing red eyes glanced from Adrienne to Maddie, finally resting on me.
"That is all well and good, Arceus," said Heatran gruffly, "but I must tell you that I am going whether the Court agrees to it or not. My friend must be avenged. On this point, I do not budge!" The Lava Dome Pokémon thumped her glowing iron paw on the invisible ground.
There was more hushed chatter between the Legendaries. Regigigas stomped over and murmured something to Arceus. The Original One considered this, then finally announced, "Very well. The accused and Heatran will attempt to find the true killers—if indeed said killers do not stand before us right now," he said. It was pretty obvious that the Pokémon still mistrusted us.
"And if they are unsuccessful?" asked Shaymin, setting off a fresh wave of discontented muttering through the horde of Legendaries.
"Unsuccessful?" I thought. Apparently these super-powerful Pokémon weren't exactly convinced that a trio of teenage humans could handle the job better than they could, even with Heatran helping us. Heck, I couldn't say I disagreed with them.
Arceus narrowed his eyes at the question. The crowd fell completely silent as he spoke his next words.
"That would be most... unfortunate for them."