"Objectives"

Chapter 3

Sorry that it took so long to actually get this through; there were at least three different ways that this chapter could have gone. Eventually I settled with what you see before you, and more importantly, I did at least two hours of spellcheck. But, since I know I'm BOUND to have missed a few things here and there when editting at ten o clock at night, in your reviews, if not already stated, maybe you can gently point out the mistakes made. I broke up many of the paragraphs to make sure you weren't faced with nothing more than a column of words. Enjoy! (if you don't like the way I ended it, blame the clock)

Lugia woke up. Upon opening her eyes, she noticed that she was staring at a rather grey, cloudy sky. She looked around her to see that she was completely alone; the giant platform that she was on, conveniently dug into the volcano, had formerly been used as a landing and launch pad for aerial vehicles. She herself had landed here on more than a few occasions whenever she was traveling towards Sinnoh. The circular "room" that was created by the rocky walls had two ways in. One was the small door to her right. To her left was a wide open horizon, the setting orange sun brilliantly illuminating the area. Normally such a view would be blocked because a single large hatch would close from top to bottom. "This moment would be perfect... Were it not for the fact that I'm down three wingmen," Lugia wondered aloud, "I wonder where they went? Its not like them to completely and totally ditch me..." Lugia began thinking back, and along with a headache returned the memory of the black wing that had knocked the lights out of her. She had been so startled by this that she had not even put up a barrier around her mind, in case she had been dealing with a ghost or psychic type. Then again... What WAS she dealing with? Realizing that she had no idea, she decided it wouldn't hurt to explore, just to make sure this place didn't have any hidden residents. A quick check revealed that was certainly not the case, although an idea did come to Lugia. She smirked to herself as she thought of her idea; she would need time, but she could easily set up shop here and find out what is going on from here! Lugia tested the metallic floor; it seemed to be still strong, but was it thick? She stomped her foot, and the lack of any hollow indicative sounds disappointed Lugia. "Alright, there goes THAT idea..." she murmured to herself, "now what am I to do now..." Suddenly a distress signal rang out in Lugia's head:

'Meet at Arceus' hall immediately!

The fact that it was sent as an urgent signal must have meant that the plan had not gone... Well, according to plan. Just as Lugia was about to take off, she sensed that presence from earlier returning, with four extra persons. "Just on schedule..." she murmured as she quickly rushed towards the open skyline.

Shade and his crew appeared promptly, almost right when Lugia concealed herself. Shade, far more exhausted from just teleporting all of them than he had been fighting with Arceus, wearily leaned on a wall. He slumped down, letting his high strung senses finally calm down. As they did, his black and purple suddenly began returning to light blue and green, respectively, and the ferocity from the battle seemed to desert him. "Man, Giratina may not be at full strength yet, but this is gonna be tough if I have to be the strongest one on the team..." Shade muttered to himself, leaning his head back, "what am I going to do?" I guess he forgot that Lugia should have been lying down on the floor not too far from where he was standing, but I guess he figured she would have flown away anyway by this point. Suddenly, as the last of his darker colors faded, a familiar feeling crept on him. The feeling of loneliness. He and Giratina mostly got along so well because both had been outcasts, and their history of struggle against Arceus but Giratina was snoozing peacefully next to his legendary birds. Hm, she would need a new name as well, to symbolize her break from Arceus. But what? Gira seemed cliche, but Tina was even worse. He'd have to get far more creative if he was going to give Giratina a more popular name. Shade slapped himself, a little harder than he had planned. "I can't name Giratina... Only she can do that..." Shade muttered, "who do I think I am, Arceus?" Suddenly a thought hit him. A thought that got his blood pumping, his mind jumping, and his smile growing. "If I am to take down Arceus... Then I have to fight fire with fire..." he began quietly, "if I'm going to finish what I started oh so long ago and reclaim my title as King of the Skies, then I will need to fight Arceus with his own power!"

Aura! He had used it to defeat Arceus last time, though Arceus was off guard and certainly not at his legendary power. Nevertheless, that only meant that both he and Giratina needed to advance their aura ever the more. And why stop there? Arceus limits the greatest power of aura to himself; but if HIS legendary army could manipulate aura freely, then they would easily overwhelm any opposing force, even if outnumbered 2:1! Shade laughed aloud, then began pacing the floor. "Yes, if I manage to make Shauara a widely used power, then I could certainly raise a powerful, like minded army! The only trick would be balancing free will with manipulation..." Shade, giddy from this breakthrough in his plan, gave a small leap of joy. Upon landing, he suddenly stopped. He sniffed the air, and quickly recognized the scent of not only his own species, but the only other one of his species who had been left here prior to his spar with Arceus a little bit ago. He turned towards the direction of the open part of the room, and he crept towards the edge of the platform. Suddenly he swerved downward, to look right underneath the ledge, but saw no one there. "Hm... Maybe I'm imagining things..." Shade murmured as Giratina began to stir.

"Well, fully rested and ready to go," Giratina said to no one in particular, "guess now would be a good time to focus on increasing my Shauara limits." "Yes, and while you do that, I'll drain the last of the Liaura from Artic," Shade snickered, "I'm surprised he had any left considering the incredible amount of influence Shauara had over the fight." Giratina, seemingly noticing Shade for the first time, arose, in its Altered Forme, and stalked over to Shade. "So, just out of question, what took you so long?" Giratina demanded, "and why are the three legendary birds calling themselves Molten, Zap, and Artic?" "I gave them a name all their own," Shade explained, "to help them establish a sense of identity." "Identity with WHO?" Giratina demanded, "yourself?" Shade finally comprehended where Giratina was coming from. "Listen Giratina, I know your probably feeling somewhat threatened here, but I assure you this is for the best of the revolution!" Shade reassured Giratina, "certainly that has been our long time goal since meeting?" "Maybe so..." Giratina said, backing down slightly, " I mean, I guess its not fair for me to jump on you for getting those birds onto our side in such a... round about manner." "Well, I mean if you still WANT to get on to me..." Shade trailed, "I wouldn't exactly stop you." Giratina looked puzzled for a mere split second before narrowing her eyes. "Shade, this isn't going to work if your even having thoughts of such things," Giratina scolded, "we need to maintain a professional, distant relationship here. We can't afford to get mixed up with each other." Shade sighed. He knew that, but it wasn't like the legendary birds were going to mind if they woke up to a moaning Giratina. As Giratina turned to leave, Shade eyed the rim of the platform suspiciously, even as Giratina flew off.

Lugia had heard and witnessed the entire thing. A shadow lugia had knocked her out! Secretly relieved that it wasn't just some weak gengar or haunter, Lugia retreated her cloaked head from the rim of the platform as Giratina took off. She had to admit, seeing this "Shade" hit on Giratina somewhat irritated her, although she dared not venture into why that would irritate her at all. Nonetheless, she had more important pieces of information; her enemy had used some Shauara force to increase the strength of his attacks, and the legendary birds had joined this so called revolution against Arceus. Now there was only one problem with her plan: leaving. Leaving was the tricky part. Underneath the ledge where Shade had, at one time, looked straight at her, her cloaking was successful primarily because she didn't have to move. However, the second she needed to move, her scent, mental presence, and of course physical appearance would be exposed. Her concentration had been so focused on cloaking and watching that she hadn't thought about how to escape undetected. At the sound of the bird trio rousing, Lugia carefully released her cloaking, and edged away from her place. Just as she was about to take off, she gave a fleeting glance backwards towards Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno, and... Wait, where is... "Looking for someone?" Shade asked, materializing from the place she had just been hiding. Startled, Lugia jumped and, losing her hold on the ledge, began plummeting to the ground. She stretched out her arms and glided, just barely grazing the ground. Flying in hot pursuit was Shade. Ironically enough, he was slowly returning to his black and dark purple coloring, rather than her white and dark blue coloring, respectively. Figuring she was probably stronger than him in the sky, Lugia suddenly whipped around and spat a large ball of water, as if she had fired off a water cannonball from a water cannon. Shade countered by spinning, the air around him literally surrounding Shade and cloaking him in air. The water ball joined this wind in surrounding him, and as a tornado formed, Lugia found herself being sucked into the vortex as well. The wind surrounded Lugia, and unable to control her flight pattern, took her chances with spinning in a reverse direction. As the two wind currents battled for superiority, Lugia realized she still had the greater advantage with wit. Eventually, with the epicenter of the two tornados slowly approaching one another, Lugia stopped spinning and outstretched her left wing. She then ventured into placing it right where Shade's face would probably be, and, as planned, stopped Shade with a harsh slap to the face using his own momentum as the driving force.

"Alright, so we all present?" Emperion stated. "Yeah," came the chorus of my party. Emperion smirked, then unveiled the curtain. The almost blinding light coming from Meta's shining armor forced me to wince. Who's bright idea was it for us to do this so late in the evening anyway? Katty, Cambrai, Agron, Meta, Emperion, and Keniblaze (blaziken) all shouted, "Nice to see your better!" Better? In the ten minutes it had taken for Lucario to assess my situation and gather her chansey companions, then do some weird stuff to me while I was out cold wasn't exactly something I'd celebrate. I swear, I felt as if I had been violated in some sense, especially considering upon awaking I was only in a really long shirt. No pants, no undies, nothing but a really long shirt. Not to mention instead of pain I felt sore all over, and... Okay, fine, enough of my complaining, she and those chansey probably saved my life. But still... Emperion nor anyone else would tell me exactly what they did, and even later on they wouldn't tell me. Nonetheless, as I rested on the rather comfortable bed, I began absorbing what I knew. I knew the last time a black lugia had been seen in Sinnoh had been long before official written, recorded history. As my pokémon crowded around me, I began reconsidering my goals. "So, did you learn your lesson?" Agron asked, "about trying to capture legendaries?" "Maybe," I replied, "maybe I learned some lesson." Agron sighed as Keniblaze chuckled. "Some people never learn eh?" "I guess not," Agron murmured, folding his arms, "listen, next time, don't be such a show-off alright?" "Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep that at a minimum," I answered. "I wasn't referring to you," Agron retorted, "I was referring to your star player!" Emperion feigned innocence, "Me? You certainly must not be referring to me..." "Actually, YEAH, you do," Katty intervened, "in fact, there are many of red strikes against you." "Like what?" Emperion cautiously baited, "name two true things that would put me on a red list." "All I have to say is, remember the Battle Factory back in Hoenn," Agron warned, "if I have to say more, then you are just asking for trouble." Emperion seemed to stand down at this point, and I now became curious as to what exactly happened at the Battle Factory. "ANYWAY," Meta said, "the point of all of us being here is to cheer you up." "Well?" I asked, "what did you have in mind?"

The tornados stopped. In midair, two pokémon met eye to eye in a orange-yellow sky, a fiery backdrop. As the two faced each other, one in a snarl and the other in surprise, for the first time, Lugia could get a good look at Shade, and vise versa. Although maybe a color changing lugia, there didn't seem to be much difference between her and him; in fact, not even their respective color placements seemed different. Yet, this lugia was named Shade; had he designated that name for himself? Or did Arceus used to name each and every one of his legendaries with names different from their species? The fierce red eyes almost seemed to gaze into her very soul, looking through her, yet at her at the same time. The unabated feeling of being examined in such a manner disturbed Lugia, but as she was about to deliver a powerful, close up hydro pump, she suddenly felt gravity reverse. Instead of going down, like her quarry, towards the navy blue water, she seemed to be pulled up, partly against her will. The last thing she saw of him before the blurred vision of Arceus' hall appeared was a black lugia almost vanishing into the salty ocean.

Lugia suddenly ascending into the sky baffled Shade, until he realized that it was probably Arceus' doing. Then again, it could be practically any of the legendaries at this point, ranging from Mewtwo to Latios, as there were plenty of psychic legendary pokémon. Transfixed by the illumination, she seemed like, just for a moment, queen of the sky, just hovering there, suspended in midair, wings outstretched in an inviting... And that's when the cold water hit him. As the feeling of submergence washed over him (literally) Shade closed his eyes, relishing that single image in his head. He managed to store it for later, but upon realizing he had been practically breathless since entering the water, he was already desperate for air. He flailed a small bit, then broke the surface of the water as the wormhole that sucked in Giala began vanishing. No, he could not call her Giala; she did not wish to be called that. But why would she want to just be called lugia? That was the name of her species, yes, but it didn't make her any more distinct from the other lugia that had come before and would come after her. Shade gently swam back to the craggy island, the volcano and its internal warmth already seeming heavenly. He had been King of the Sky until Arceus exiled and eventually killed him. If he could make guesses, the new right hand to Arceus was probably the new ruler of the sky; that red, white, and yellow feathery beast that took out Molten. "It must be eliminated if I am to reclaim that title it now literally dresses itself in," Shade murmured as he gently took in air. He had trained himself not to go panic air inhaling, for at a time he had been at war with the rulers of the land and sea. He had technically won, but Arceus didn't really like the idea of a Shauara master controlling the sky, land, and sea. "But what about... lugia?" he whispered to himself, "certainly she would quickly replace the ruler of the sky if that bird happened to become my dinner one night." As he shook himself off, he actually walked back into the volcano, a large cave entrance that seemed naturally cut just a size too small for Shade's bulk. Somehow though, Shade enters the narrow entrance, disappearing back into his heated base of operations. He had no idea, however, that Giratina, high above on the top of the volcano, had been watching the entire time.

"Glad to see your back from the dead," a voice joked, "tell me, how did it feel to get dragged by your fins?" "shut up Groudon," a groggy, yet irritated voice snapped, " the situation would have been different had Arceus' message not disturbed me!" "How about the two of you just shut it so Rayquaza can concentrate?" Suicune hissed, "we all need to get to this meeting, and the two of you arguing isn't going to get us anywhere." "Why do we have to bring the smelly dogs along?" Groudon asked, "seriously, it'd be easier to leave them here." "Because, it's more convient to just have us ALL go in one swoop," Latios explained, "besides, they came all the way to Hoenn, so we might as well be good hosts." Groudon huffs, looking at the night sky. The wind viciously whipped around them, high in the Sky Tower, far from the main continent of Hoenn. The crashing waves below seemed unusually calm, and the eerie fog that usually concealed the location was lifted. "How did they even get here?" Latias asked, nibbling on what seemed to be a chesto berry, "can they walk on water now?" "That's for you to find out later," Raikou retorted, "we have our ways." They weren't exactly going to mention they hijacked a small boat and forced the sailor to sail them here, especially with Latias in the hearing. If anything went past her and wasn't passed on to Arceus, then the apocalypse drew near. The top of the tower was incredible flat, the dizzying heights below only heightened by the lack of ramparts or even a rail; a single misstep, and there was nothing to hold a flightless pokémon to the top of the tower. Kyogre, levitating slightly, shivered as yet another gust of merciless wind threatened to freeze them all. "WILL YOU HURRY UP!" shouted Entei, shivering, "man, why is it so cold up here?" "Groudon opened his heart for a change," Kyogre muttered, just loud enough for Groudon to hear. "Take that back or else you fishy..." "That's enough," Rayquaza shouted, shaking slightly the tower, "I'm done. Latios, all you and Latias need to do is channel your energy and our ride to Sinnoh will be rather smooth. As the two eon pokémon followed suit, a vortex opens in the center of the flat platform. As it deepens, swirling patterns of yellow, blue, green, and even red invited the colorful into its depths. For some reason unknown, no one seemed anxious to go first; it the one to go first usually met the nasty surprise on the other side, if there was one, and had to return to tell the tale. Entei took the initiative and leaped in. "Why is the volcano pokémon cold?" Groudon asked, unbothered by the wind, "figured she'd be the most unaffected of us all besides me." "Probably has something to do with those poffins she ate before coming here to soothe her slight paralysis," Suicune explained, "after that, the right berries provided the healing needed, but it may have affected her body's ability to produce excessive heat." Seeing as there was no screaming from the other side, the gateway was assumed safe, and one by one the legendaries leapt in. The last being Latios, who cast a wary glance upwards, then soared in, closing the vortex as he vanished into it.

"Alright, cut it out," I cried as I was helplessly assaulted by the tickle of Katty, "I mean it!" I had bets that she was tickling me with her claws, but I had my eyes shut tight, my entire body attempting to curl up in an attempt to ward off the attack. But to no avail. Finally, Katty stopped, and as I relaxed, tears running down my eyes, Keniblaze said, "Alright then, all done, get some rest and you should be up and about by tomorrow." I never will know or even question how in the world Keniblaze had finished patching me up, but it worked wonders the day after. With only Emperion and Agron by my side, I set off from Jubilife city, somewhat in a depressed mood. Not long after my encounter with Giratina, I had hitched a ride with Cynthia back to Jubilife city to digest my encounter. They say that when apocalypse strikes, the last place you want to be in is a major city. Apparently I failed to follow their advise, and so that's how I ended up being nearly killed by Ho-Oh. Anyway, not long after the scene in Jubilife, I began considering what I could possibly do to reverse my fortunes. "Emperion, Agron, I've come to a conclusion," I stated as I stared down the eastern route out of the city, "we're headed for Hoenn."

"WHAT!" Emperion exclaimed at the same time Agron made a whoop of joy. "Why are we headed backwards?" Emperion demanded to know, "we should move forward to the Battle Frontier of Sinnoh, and then Unova!" "The only reason we beat the champion was because you and Agron were forced to work together or face the ultimate shamedown," I explained, "and to be honest, I think its because you're gotten a little to comfortable around here." "But... That's not fair!" Emperion protested, "comfort is good!" "Besides, I still need to work in Kanto and Johto, and getting reacquainted with our friends in Hoenn should do the trick." "But..." Emperion whined, "Hoenn is so..." "So what?" Agron growled threateningly, "I dare you to say it." Emperion decidedly dropped the topic. "So how the heck are we going to GET there?" Emperion asked, defeated, "is there some ship that's going to take us?" "Actually... Yes, there is," I answered, "but you see, we are not going by ship." "Then... How ARE we going to get there?" Agron asked, confused, "because you failed to capture any birds in your journey." I smiled Mischievously . "Yeah, but I have two VERY able pimps who can certainly get us a ride to Hoenn." Agron smiled, rolled his shoulders, and grunted, "yeah, I see where this is going." Emperion frowned. "I don't know, we have pretty much screwed the region; where are we going to find some pokémon who DON'T know us?" "The battle frontier," I sighed, "I guess we have to go in that direction anyway." Agron cleared his throat, then said, "Actually, Emperion has been the one whoring the region away. I've been doing some rather productive things." "Such as?" Emperion demanded, "name two things." "Remember when you left me at the daycare?" Agron said, "did you ever wonder why the entire place seemed depressed when I left?" "Yeah, I left you there for two months, and the people said they could hardly tear you away from the group," I answered, " it was almost heartbreaking." Agron smiled, then whispered, "Well, I'll give you two guesses for what I did to make sure EVERYONE enjoyed their stay." Emperion looked both stunned and somewhat offended, but I was a bit slower that day and didn't catch his drift Immediately. My face betrayed me, and Agron plainly said, "I gave the females a good time and showed the males how its done." "DUDE that is sick!" Emperion gagged, recoiling in disgust, "I thought I'd heard it all, but this takes the cake." "One under another in my grasp," Agron reminisced, "trust me, every male and female learned something from either watching or getting in on the action." By this point I understood, and I realized how clueless I had been about what really went on behind the curtains. Or shrubbery, whatever. " Anything else I should be told about before we leave?" I asked.

"What was your second thing?" Emperion challenged, "well?" "Remember when we were attacked by that random ryhperior at Victory Road?" Agron asked, moving on. "Yeah, I kicked her ass and we moved on, so what!" Emperion shouted, "what did you do?" Agron chuckled, then replied, "Well, she had friends, and to be honest, she was going to kill all of us." "What changed her mind?" I asked cautiously, fearing the answer. "I treated her to a proper dinner," Agron said, beaming, "I have to admit, it was nice..." "Now hold on a second, when did THIS happen?" Emperion challenged skeptically, "come on now, you were with us the whole time." "No, we did get separated after leaving," I pointed out, "we camped right underneath the waterfall for days." "Well, I guess I stayed a little longer than I thought," Agron sheepishly admitted, "I didn't get any, but heck, sure was nice getting to know some of the wildlife without having to ram any of them." The multi meanings behind this were not lost to me, and I finally said after an awkward pause, "Your point has been made. So you want to set out from Victory Road?" "Gonna be one heck of a journey..." Emperion said, "maybe we should just head to the underground..." "That's it!" I exclaimed, "that's how we're going to get to Victory Road!" Emperion cursed underneath his breath at the suggestion, and as I readied my digging tools, I looked around briefly for a decent entry point. And, almost as if on cue, that's when the duo showed up.

"Hello Emperion," Lucario snickered, "enjoying your trainer's madness?" "That is uncalled for," Cynthia goaded, "but the madness is understated." "Jeez, why do you have to be such a..." I started till Agron gave me a silencing look. "So, how are you two doing?" Agron asked irritatingly enough quiet politely, "enjoying the day?" "Yes actually," Lucario answered beaming, "I just figured out something cool." "What is it?' Agron asked, sounding repulsively interested, "maybe a demonstration?" "With pleasure," Lucario replied. Lucario then closed her eyes, and, I swear her ears went even more on end than usual, and she made a pulling motion towards Emperion. Much to my surprise, Emperion was actually pulled forward against his own will, and received a rather nasty punch to the beak once he reached Lucario. Agron chuckled, then said, "So you just learned how to use aura?" "Efficiently," Lucario corrected as Emperion returned to his place in fury, "I just learned how to efficiently use aura." "Interesting, maybe you'd like to practice in battle sometime?" Agron said, "say, at Realgam Tower in Orre a few weeks from now?" "Is that a challenge?" Lucario asked, sounding rather flattered, "or an invitation?" "Regardless, we're headed to HOENN," I reminded Agron, "Orre is completely out of the way." "Not really," Agron answered, not even bothering to stop looking at Lucario long enough to face me, "Orre is on the way. The ship has to refuel there anyway." "Pfft, you just wanna fight that lucario," Emperion scoffed, "and besides, if I can kick your rear, then that lucario certainly can too." Agron seemed to ignore Emperion altogether, continuing with his conversation, "So, is that a yes or a no?" "We will see," Lucario answered somewhat mysteriously, blushing rather noticeably, "Cynthia has to keep an eye on Sinnoh so..." "I'm sure you can 'convince' your actual trainer to take you to Orre," Agron suggested, "and if mere suggestion doesn't work, then there is the non-violent protestant approach." Lucario giggled ever so slightly, Emperion blehhed, and Cynthia looked at me suspiciously.

"Alright you two, let's get on a roll!" I shouted, mounting a hard hat with a light onto my head, "we need to get on our way as soon as possible, and I don't want to run into those deities again." "Why, scared they will catch you instead of the other way around?" Cynthia teased. She fell silent though, obviously expecting Lucario to come in with her own thing. When she realized that Lucario was far more interested in Agron, she grumbled, "Yes, we should be on our way." She nudged Lucario, who sighed, then walked off along a quickly retreating Cynthia. Emperion could hold off no longer. "What the hell man!" Emperion exclaimed, "dude, what's with the flattery? Don't you remember what she did to me after I saved her life?" "Holding a grudge is how the two of us nearly ended up killing Jack remember?" Agron said, staring after Lucario, "besides, where you're forceful and abrasive, I come in on a decisive, illusionary choice making instance." "So was that a date to our little Romeo?" I asked, "because if so, I'm not sure your going to make it." "On the contrary," Agron countered, "you can 't walk on the routes because you still aren't in the condition to doge wild pokémon attacks; as a result, you NEED me to dig our way through the underground, so to refuse me access to Orre will get you a very lazy pokémon." "Why not just teach me dig?" Emperion suggested, "that away we won't have to put up with this guy's crap." "Emperion return," I said promptly as Emperion returned to his pokéball. As I stashed the great ball away, I chided, "Agron, I know you and Emperion don't get along well, but that was cold." "What was cold?" Agron innocently said, "it's not my fault I'm far more charming than the 'emperor'." I rolled my eyes, barely realizing I had done so. "Fine, we'll stop by Orre on our way there, but we are heading to Hoenn next!" I threatened, "ONE battle at Realgam tower and we are out of there, got it?" "Understood," my happy aggron stated, already beginning to dig into the spot conveniently marked 'X' with grass.

Lugia soon found herself in Arceus' hall, surrounded by bandaged legendaries. These legendaries, strangely enough, included Entei, Raikou, Palkia, and Dialga. Other legendaries who seemed injured were Groudon, Kyogre, Azelf, Uxie, Mespirit, Regirock, Registeel, Regice, and even Regigias! Lugia could assume that at this point this was a serious matter that obviously required a large amount of both attention and attendance, as the last time she had seen them it was at her coronation as Guardian of the Sea. And that had been quite a while ago. Regigas, besides Arceus and Giratina, was technically the oldest one there, even a bit older than Groudon and Kyogre, and the fact that it was injured surprised Lugia. "Don't worry, the Regis merely were having a sparring match when we showed up," Arceus explained, "Ho-Oh needlessly bandaged them up." "You say that now that they are bandaged up," Ho-Oh defensively states, "how was I supposed to realize they didn't need it?" "Now isn't the time to worry about technicalities," Regigas cut in, "right now we need to worry about the return of Shade." "You speak like you know him," Suicune verbally noted, "do you?" "I was there when he came to the hall and practically eliminated my peers before my very eyes," Regigas explained, "I was also there when he, once again, caught Arceus off guard and sent him to anther dimension." "It took awhile to get him back," Palkia teased, "because this guy here thought he was invincible." "Was that such a wrong thing to think at the time?" Arceus countered, "I mean, he was just a lugia with a different coloration scheme. I thought nothing of it at the time." "I met this guy and he seems rather impressive," Lugia said quickly, "interestingly enough, I overheard something about Shauara and Liaura." "Those are complicated topics to discuss," Dialga suddenly said, "primarily because we don't know much about either of them." "Regular aura is relatively simple to deal with," Suicune interjected, "but Liaura and Shauara, special forms of aura, are a little more in the gray areas when it comes down to it." "Wait, you fought with Shade?" Entei said in surprise, "what was it like fighting another one of your own species?" "Hard to explain really," Lugia admitted, "it was more evenly matched than I had expected." "Based on your lack of open injuries, I think we can all assume that it wasn't a match to the death," Groudon scoffed, "I wouldn't be shocked if the two of you went dumbstruck just seeing each other." "That's not at all what happened," Lugia said, preparing for an argument when a small green light fazed in.

"I'm here!" A high pitched voice squealed, "not only that, I brought pokéblocks!" "WOO!" Raikou eagerly exclaimed, "Celebi, you always bring the goods to the hoods!" "The what to the who now?" Ho-Oh muttered in confusion. Celebi, along with Latios and Latias, arrived on the scene with a rather large metal plate. Arceus scowled in disapproval as the colorful cubes clattered onto the silverware, but before any beast could dare step a foot towards the delicious treats, Raikou forgot his injuries and began digging in. "Save some for us you thundercat!" Entei shouted as practically everyone attacked the goods. Kyogre, Groudon, Arceus, Suicune, Regigas and Lugia were the only ones not in the crowd of legendaries childishly wolfing down the blocks. "Great, how am I supposed to make soldiers of them if they act like this," Arceus, "things aren't like they used to be." "That's because you took away the competition factor," Regigas mumbled, "things were different when Giratina was around to keep everyone on their toes." "What was that Regi?" Arceus inquired, "I didn't quite catch your smart response to my note to self." "OUT OF THE WAY!" robotically shouted Registeel as Raikou found himself in the air, landing roughly next to Suicune. "ENOUGH!" Ho-Oh screeched, "get your shameless asses back to your places before I make gift shop gifts out of all of you!" The threat was taken as seriously as a heart attack, and before long order was restored and the plate was licked clean by a slightly red faced Dialga. Dialga quickly returned to his place as the almost burning stare of Ho-Oh almost literally burned holes through him.

Arceus nodded his thanks to Ho-Oh, and was about to begin when a dark shape suddenly materialized near Latios. "BOO!" the shape shouted, startling the eon pokémon and sending both of them (Latios and Latias) flying across the room. Snickering, Darkrai officially appeared, his dark coloration making him stick out amongst the bright surroundings like a zit on a previously flawless face. Cresselia fazed in next, shaking her head. "You know, out of all of the pairs, you two seem to get along the best," Kyogre commented, "I mean seriously, the two of you never are fighting whenever you show up... TOGETHER." "She's just amused by my antics," Darkrai informed Kyogre, "besides, she's one of the few of us here who has a set in stone gender." "Oh that's an appropriate thing to pull up right now!" Cresselia scolded Darkrai as the eon pokémon slowly return to their places, "Arceus has called us here on a very important mission." "Yes, and if I can get started without any more interruptions, I can debrief you all on the situation."

But circumstance had other ideas, starting with Celebi. "Awww, Ho, why did you have to spoil the pokeblock fun?" "Call me Ho again and you will find out firsthand why I broke up the childish mood!" "How about the two of you calm down so I can.." "I'm still hungry, I can't bend space on an empty stomach." "Suck it up, the only thing I had to taste on my way here was a big blue and red fish." "You weren't so delicious yourself you fat red oaf!" "Take that back!" "The truth hurts maybe a bit Groudon?" "Darkrai, you can be such a douche to us sometimes you know..." "Define douche."Groudon and Kyogre were about to face off again, Darkrai and Latios seemed prepared for a fight, even as Ho-Oh stared down Celebi with a look of sheer anger. Lugia sighed, took a deep breath, and right before the brawl began, roared. She roared nigh at the top of her lungs, and as the entire hall seemed to shake, from the ever extending pillars to the very platform they were standing on, resulting the assembly turning their attention towards Lugia. "Obviously this isn't going to work," Lugia concluded after ensuring she had everyone's attention, "we are still missing Rayquaza, who should have showed up with our continental sea duo, the wish maker, and our shape shifting hooligan. Arceus, debrief the leaders of each of these trios or quintuplets or whatever, and then let us debrief our charges, seeing as they won't at all settle down." "Sound advice," Arceus declared, "but that would take too long." "Well, we haven't gotten anywhere this way," Regigas argued, "and we won't as long as this keeps going like this." A moment of silence followed Regigas' last words, and as everyone took in the situation, they all slowly looked towards Arceus, who now clearly stood out as the only one without even the slightest sign of shame on the face. "For those of you introduced into the world after Groudon and Kyogre, you probably aren't aware of who Shade is," Arceus began, "as a result, that means we will have to spend precious time explaining that." "Or we could divide and conquer," Lugia muttered. Arceus ignored Lugia and continued, "Before that however, I must make it clear that it is imperative to note that he has aligned himself with Giratina."

Not a sound emitted from the assembly; not even a rumbling stomach dared make enough noise to disrupt the trance. "Shade was the original guardian of the sky before Ho-Oh was given the job," Arceus explained, "and was the original lugia." Quick glances towards lugia only made the situation that more awkward for Lugia, as she didn't really like where this was headed. "After of course committing acts of high treason and staged a coup with Giratina, he was defeated, and mankind, for some odd reason, decided to leave the closet and start taming pokémon," Arceus continued, "I thought he was gone for good... but like Giratina, it seems I was wrong about that."